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HOW TO TEACH 
RELIGION 

PRINCIPLES AND METHODS 

BY 

GEORGE HERBERT BETTS 

Professor of Religious Education 
Northwestern University 



PIP 



THE ABINGDON PRESS 

NEW YORK CINCINNATI 



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Copyright, iqiq, by 
GEORGE HERBERT BETTS 



AUG 18 19)9 



©GI.A529610 



DEDICATED TO THOSE WHO HAVE IN THEIR 
KEEPING THE RELIGIOUS DESTINY OF 

AMERICA THE TWO MILLION TEACHERS 

IN OUR CHURCH SCHOOLS. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. The Teacher Himself 13 

Importance of the teacher — Three types of teachers — 
The personal factor in teaching religion — Developing the 
power of personality — The cultivatable factors in per- 
sonality — A scale for determining personality — The teach- 
er's mastery of subject-matter — Methods of growth — 
Fields of mastery demanded — Service and rewards — 
Problems and questions. 

II. The Great Objective 30 

Two great objectives in teaching — Making sure of 
the greater objective — Teaching children versus teaching 
subject-matter — Subject-matter as a means instead of 
an end — Success in instruction to be measured in terms 
of modified life, not of material covered — The goal of 
a constantly developing Christian character and expe- 
rience^ — Problems for discussion. 



III. The Fourfold Foundation 42 

What the four-fold foundation consists of: (1) right 
aims, (2) right materials to reach these aims, (3) right 
organization of this material for instruction, (4) right 
presentation in instruction — The aim of teaching re- 
ligion is (1) fruitful knowledge, (2) right religious atti- 
tudes and growing consciousness of God, (3) power and 
will to live righteously — Selecting subject-matter to 
meet these ends — Principles of organization of material 
— The problem of effective presentation — Questions for 
discussion. 

IV. Religious Knowledge of Most Worth 58 

Not all religious knowledge of equal value — What de- 
termines value of knowledge— Kind of knowledge needed 

5 



6 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

CHAPTER PAGE 

by child — Developing the child's idea of God — Harm 
from wrong concepts of God — Giving the child the right 
concept of religion — The qualities by which religion 
should be defined to the child — The child's knowledge 
of the Bible; of the church; of religious forms of ex- 
pression — Problems and questions. 

V. Religious Attitudes to be Cultivated 76 

The meaning of religious attitudes — These attitudes 
lie at the basis of both motives and character — Im- 
portance of the pupil's attitudes toward the church 
school and class — Enjoyment of the lesson hour and 
the growth of loyalty — The sense of mastery necessary 
to mental and spiritual growth — The grounding of a 
continuous interest in the Bible and religion — Growth 
in spiritual warmth and responsiveness — The cultivation 
of ideals — The training of fine appreciations — Worthy 
loyalties and devotions — Clearness of God-consciousness 
— Questions and problems. 

VI. Connecting Religious Instruction With Life and 

Conduct 91 

Religious instruction must carry across to life and 
conduct — Hence necessity of finding practical outlet in 
expression for feelings, ideals, emotions and attitudes 
resulting from instruction — The setting up of certain 
religious habits — Expression in connection with the life 
of the church — Expression in the home life — Expression 
in the community and public school life — Expression 
in worship and the devotional life — Problems for dis- 
cussion. 



VII. The Subject Matter of Religious Education 109 

The Bible the great source-book of religious material 
— Yet much material other than biblical required — 
Principles for the selection of material from the Bible — 
Biblical material for early childhood; for later child- 
hood; for adolescence — Story material and its sources — 



CONTENTS 7 

CHAPTER PAGE 

Materials from nature — Materials from history and 
biography — Picture material for religious teaching — Re- 
ligious music for children — Questions and problems. 

VIII. The Organization of Material 129 

Four different types of organization — Organization ap- 
plied (1) to the curriculum as a whole, (2) to individual 
lessons — Haphazard organization — Logical organization 
— Chronological organization — Psychological organiza- 
tion — Three types of curriculum organization: (1) Uni- 
form lessons, (2) Graded lessons, (3) text books of re- 
ligion — Organizing daily lesson material — Typical lesson 
plans — Problems for discussion. 

IX. The Technique of Teaching 148 

Teaching that sticks — Attention the key — Types of 
appeal to attention — The control of interest — Interest 
and action — Variety and change as related to interest 
— Social contagion of interest — The prevention of dis- 
tractions — The control of conduct — Danger points in 
instruction — Establishing and maintaining standards — 
Questions and problems. 

X. Making Truth Vivid 165 

Vividness of impression necessary to lasting value — 
The whole mind involved in religion — Learning to think 
in religion — Protecting children against intellectual diffi- 
culties — The appeal of religion to the imagination — Guid- 
ing principles for the religious imagination — The use of 
the memory in religion — Laws of memory — How to 
memorize — Problems for discussion. 

XI. Types of Teaching 183 

The several types of lessons for religious instruction 
— The informational lesson — The use of the inductive 
lesson — The deductive lesson in religion — The applica- 
tion of drill to religious teaching — The lesson in appre- 
ciation — Conducting the review lesson — How to make 
the lesson assignment — Questions and problems. 



8 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XII. Methods Used in the Recitation 201 

Methods of procedure for the lesson hour — The use 
of the topical method — Place and dangers of the lecture 
method — Securing participation from the class — The 
question method — Principles of good questioning — The 
treatment of answers — The story method — Guiding 
principles in story teaching — The teaching method of 
Jesus — Jesus the embodiment of all scientific pedagogy 
— Questions and problems. 



EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION 

The teacher of religion needs to be very sure of 
himself at one point. He ought to be able to answer 
affirmatively the question, "Have I the prophetic im- 
pulse in my teaching?" Sooner or later, practical 
difficulties will "come not singly but by battalions," 
and the spirit needs to be fortified against discourage- 
ment. When driven back to the second or third line 
defense it is important that such a line really exists; 
the consciousness of being the spokesman for God 
makes the teacher invulnerable and unconquerable. 

But in order that this divine impulse may attain 
its greatest strength and find the most direct, artic- 
ulate, and effective expression, the teacher must know 
how as well as what to teach. The most precious spiritual 
energy may be lost because improperly directed or con- 
trolled. Unhesitating insight into the solution of prac- 
tical problems helps to open up a channel through which 
the prophetic impulse can find fullest expression. 

There is no substitute for mastery of the technique 
of the teaching process. Prayerful consecration cannot 
take its place. This ready command of the methods 
of teaching, on the other hand, is in no sense an equiv- 
alent of the consciousness of having been "called" or 
"chosen" to teach religion. The two must go hand 
in hand. No one who feels himself divinely appointed 
for this sacred task dares ignore the responsibility of 
becoming a "workman not to be ashamed, rightly 
dividing the word of truth." 

This volume by Dr. Betts offers the earnest teacher 
of religion an exceptional opportunity to make more 

9 



io HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

effective his ideal of instruction. The treatment applies 
the best of modern educational science to the problems 
of the church school, without, however, for a moment, 
forgetting that a vital religious experience is the final 
goal of all our teaching. 

Besides setting forth the underlying principles of 
religious teaching in a clear and definite way, the author 
has included in every chapter a rich fund of illustration 
and concrete application which cannot fail to prove 
immediately helpful in every church classroom. It is 
also believed that students of religious education will 
find this treatment of method by Professor Betts the 
most fundamental and sane that has yet appeared in 
the field. 

Norman E. Richardson. 



AUTHOR'S PREFACE 

Children can be brought to a religious character and 
experience through right nurture and training in religion. 
This is the fundamental assumption on which the 
present volume rests, and it makes the religious edu- 
cation of children the most strategic opportunity and 
greatest responsibility of the church, standing out above 
all other obligations whatever. 

Further, the successful teaching of religion is based 
on the same laws that apply to other forms of teach- 
ing; hence teachers in church schools need and have a 
right to all the help that a scientific pedagogy per- 
meated by an evangelistic spirit can give them. They 
also have the obligation to avail themselves of this 
help for the meeting of their great task. 

This book undertakes to deal in a concrete and prac- 
tical way with the underlying principles of religious 
instruction. The plan of the text is simple. First 
comes the part the teacher must play in training the 
child in religion. Then the spiritual changes and growth 
to be effected in the child are set forth as the chief ob- 
jective of instruction. Next is a statement of the great 
aims, or goals, to be striven for in the child's expanding 
religious experience. These goals are: (i) fruitful 
religious knowledge; (2) right religious attitudes — in- 
terests, ideals, feelings, loyalties; (3) the application of 
this knowledge and these attitudes to daily life and conduct. 

Following the discussion of aims is the question of 
just what subject matter to choose in order to accom- 
plish these ends, and how best to organize the chosen 
material for instruction. And finally, how most effectively 

11 



12 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

to present the subject matter selected to make it serve 
its purpose in stimulating and guiding the spiritual 
growth and development of children. 

The volume is intended as a textbook for teacher- 
training classes, students of religious education, and 
for private study by church-school teachers. It is also 
hoped that ministers may find some help in its pages 
toward meeting their educational problems. 

Northwestern University, 
Evanston, Illinois. 



CHAPTER I 
THE TEACHER HIMSELF 

It is easy enough to secure buildings and classrooms 
for our schools. The expenditure of so many dollars 
will bring us the equipment we require. Books and 
materials may be had almost for the asking. The great 
problem is to secure teachers — real teachers, teachers 
of power and devotion who are able to leave their 
impress on young lives. Without such teachers all 
the rest is but as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. 
And to be a real teacher is a very high achievement. 

Bishop Vincent was giving a lecture on "That Boy." 
He himself was "that boy," and in the course of de- 
scribing his school days he fell into meditation as fol- 
lows: "That old school master of mine! — He is dead 
now — and I have forgiven him! — And I am afraid that 
was the chronology of the matter; for I never was 
able to forgive him while he lived." I, as one of the 
listeners, smiled at the bitter wit of the speaker, but 
was oppressed. 

This somber view of the impression sometimes left 
by teachers on their pupils received an antidote the 
following day, however, when a venerable old man 
approached my desk bearing in his hands an ancient 
and dog-eared copy of a text in grammar. He opened 
the book and proudly showed me written across the 
fly leaf "Grover Cleveland, President." Then he told 
me this story: 

"I have been a teacher. In one of my first schools 
I had Grover Cleveland as a pupil. He came without 

13 



14 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

a textbook in grammar, and I loaned him mine. Years 
passed, and Grover Cleveland was President of the 
United States. One day I was one of many hundreds 
passing in line at a public reception to grasp the Pres- 
ident's hand. I carried this book with me, and when 
it came my turn to meet the President, I presented the 
volume and said, 'Mr. President, do you recognize this 
book, and do you remember me?' In an instant the 
light of recognition had flashed in Mr. Cleveland's 
eyes. Calling me by name, he grasped my hand and 
held it while the crowd waited and while he recalled 
old times and thanked me for what I had meant to 
him when I was his teacher. Then he took the old 
book and autographed it for me." 

Three types of teachers. — Two types of teachers are 
remembered: one to be forgiven after years have soft- 
ened the antagonisms and resentments; the other to be 
thought of with honor and gratitude as long as memory 
lasts. Between these two is a third and a larger group: 
those who are forgotten, because they failed to stamp a 
lasting impression on their pupils. This group repre- 
sents the mediocrity of the profession, not bad enough 
to be actively forgiven, not good enough to claim a place 
in gratitude and remembrance. 

To which type would we belong? To which type 
can we belong? Can we choose? What are the fac- 
tors that go to determine the place we shall occupy 
in the scale of teachers? 

THE PERSONAL FACTOR 

When we revert to our own pupil days we find that 
the impressions which cling to our memories are not 
chiefly impressions of facts taught and of lessons learned, 
but of the personality of the teacher. We may have 



THE TEACHER HIMSELF 15 

forgotten many of the truths presented and most of 
the conclusions drawn, but the warmth and glow of 
the human touch still remains. 

To be a teacher of religion requires a particularly- 
exalted personality. The teacher and the truth taught 
should always leave the impression of being of the 
same pattern. 'Tor their sakes I sanctify myself," 
said the Great Teacher; shall the teachers of his Word 
dare do less! 

The teacher as an interpreter of truth. — This is 
not to say that the subject matter taught is unim- 
portant, nor that the lessons presented are immaterial. 
It is only to say that life responds first of all to life. 
Truth never comes to the child disembodied and de- 
tached, but always with the slant and quality of the 
teacher's interpretation of it. It is as if the teacher's 
mind and spirit were the stained glass through which 
the sunlight must fall; all that passes through the 
medium of a living personality takes its tone and quality 
from this contact. The pupils may or may not grasp 
the lessons of their books, but their teachers are living 
epistles, known and read by them all. 

For it is the concrete that grips and molds. Our 
greatest interest and best attention center in persons. 
The world is neither formed nor reformed by abstract 
truths nor by general theories. Whatever ideals we 
would impress upon others we must first have realized 
in ourselves. What we are often drowns out what we 
say. Words and maxims may be misunderstood; char- 
acter seldom is. Precepts may fail to impress; person- 
ality never does. God tried through the ages to reveal 
his purposes to man by means of the law and the proph- 
ets, but man refused to heed or understand. It was 
only when God had made his thought and plan for 



16 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

man concrete in the person of Jesus of Nazareth that 
man began to understand. 

The first and most difficult requirement of the teacher, 
therefore, is — himself, his personality. He must com- 
bine in himself the qualities of life and character he 
seeks to develop in his pupils. He must look to his 
personality as the source of his influence and the measure 
of his power. He must be the living embodiment of 
what he would lead his pupils to become. He must 
live the religion he would teach them. He must pos- 
sess the vital religious experience he would have them 
attain. 

The building of personality. — Personality is not 
born, it is made. A strong, inspiring personality is not 
a gift of the gods, nor is a weak and ineffective person- 
ality a visitation of Providence. Things do not happen 
in the realm of the spiritual any more than in the realm 
of nature. Everything is caused. Personality grows. 
It takes its form in the thick of the day's work and its 
play. It is shaped in the crush and stress of life's prob- 
lems and its duties. It gains its quality from the char- 
acter of the thoughts and acts that make up the com- 
mon round of experience. It bears the marks of whatever 
spiritual fellowship and communion we keep with the 
Divine. 

Professor Dewey tells us that character is largely 
dependent on the mode of assembling its parts. A 
teacher may have a splendid native inheritance, a fine 
education, and may move in the best social circles, and 
yet not come to his best in personality. It requires some 
high and exalted task in order to assemble the powers 
and organize them to their full efficiency. The urge of 
a great work is needed to make potential ability actual. 
Paul did not become the giant of his latter years until 



THE TEACHER HIMSELF 17 

he took upon himself the great task of carrying the 
gospel to the Gentiles. 

Our own responsibility. — It follows then that the 
building of our personalities is largely in our own hands. 
True, the influence of heredity is not to be overlooked. 
It is easier for some to develop attractive, compelling 
qualities than for others. The raw material of our 
nature comes with us; is what heredity decrees. But 
the finished product bears the stamp of our training 
and development. Fate or destiny never takes the 
reins from our hands. We are free to shape ourselves 
largely as we will. 

Our inner life will daily grow by what it feeds upon. 
This is the great secret of personality-building. What 
to-day we build into thought and action to-morrow 
becomes character and personality. Let us cultivate 
our interests, think high thoughts, and give ourselves 
to worthy deeds, and these have soon become a life 
habit. Let our hearts go out in helpfulness to those 
about us, and sympathy for human kind becomes a 
compelling motive in our lives before we are aware. 
Let us consciously listen to the still small voice speak- 
ing to the soul, and we will find our souls expanding to 
meet the Infinite. 

The secret. — He who would develop his personality 
into the full measure of its strength and power must, 
then, set his goal at living constantly in the presence of 
the best. This will include the best in thought and 
memory and anticipation. It will permit none but 
cheerful moods, nor allow us to dwell with bitterness 
upon petty wrongs and grievances. It will control the 
tongue, and check the unkind word or needless crit- 
icism. It will cause us to seek for the strong and beau- 
tiful qualities in our friends and associates, and not 



18 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

allow us to point out their faults nor magnify their 
failings. It will cure us of small jealousies and suppress 
all spirit of revenge. It will save us from idle worry 
and fruitless rebellion against such ills as cannot be 
cured. In short, it will free our lives from the crippling 
influence of negative moods and critical attitudes. It 
will teach us to be ruled by our admirations rather than 
by our aversions. 

Above all, he who would build a personality fitted 
to serve as the teacher of the child in his religion must 
constantly live in the presence of the best he can attain 
in God. There is no substitute for this. No fullness 
of intellectual power and grasp, no richness of knowledge 
gleaned, and no degree of skill in instruction can take 
the place of a vibrant, immediate, Spirit-filled con- 
sciousness of God in the heart. For religion is life, and 
the best definition of religion we can present to the 
child is the example and warmth of a life inspired and 
vivified by contact with the Source of all spiritual 
being. The authority of the teacher should rest on 
his own religious experience, rather than on the spir- 
itual experience of others. 

A character chart. — There is no possibility, of course, 
of making a list of all the qualities that enter into our 
personalities. Nor would it be possible to trace all 
the multiform ways in which these qualities may com- 
bine in our characters. It is worth while, however, to 
consider a few of the outstanding traits which take 
first place in determining our strength or weakness, 
and especially such as will respond most readily to 
conscious training and cultivation. Such a list follows. 
Each quality may serve as a goal both for our own 
development and for the training of our pupils. 



THE TEACHER HIMSELF 



19 



Positive Qualities 

1 Open-minded, inquiring, 

broad 

2 Accurate, thorough, dis- 

cerning 

3 Judicious, balanced, fair 

4 Original, independent, re- 

sourceful 

5 Decisive, possessing con- 

victions 

6 Cheerful, joyous, optimis- 

tic 

7 Amiable, friendly, agree- 

able 

8 Democratic, broadly sym- 

pathetic 

9 Tolerant, sense of humor, 

generous 

10 Kind, courteous, tactful 

11 Tractable, cooperative, 

teachable 

12 Loyal, honorable, depend- 

able 

13 Executive, forceful, vigor- 

ous 

14 High ideals, worthy, ex- 

alted 

15 Modest, self-effacing 

16 Courageous, daring, firm 

17 Honest, truthful, frank, 

sincere 

18 Patient, calm, equable 



Negative Qualities 

Narrow, dogmatic, not 
hungry for truth 

Indefinite, superficial, 
lazy 

Prejudiced, led by likes 
and dislikes 

Dependent, imitative, 
subservient 

Uncertain, wavering, un- 
decided 

Gloomy, morose, pessi- 
mistic, bitter 

Repellent, unsociable, 
disagreeable 

Snobbish , self -c entered, 
exclusive 

Opinionated, dogmatic, 
intolerant 

Cruel, rude, untactful 

Stubborn, not able to 
work with others 

Disloyal, uncertain de- 
pendability 

Uncertain, weak, not ca- 
pable 

Low standards, base, con- 
temptible 

Egotistical, vain, auto- 
cratic 

Overcautious, weak, vac- 
illating 

Low standards of honor 
and truth 

Irritable, excitable, 
moody 



20 



HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 



Positive Qualities Negative Qualities 

19 Generous, open-hearted, Stingy, selfish, resentful 

forgiving 

20 Responsive, congenial Cold, repulsive, uninvit- 

ing 

21 Punctual, on schedule, ca- Tardy, usually behind- 

pable hand, incapable 

2 2 Methodical, consistent, Haphazard, desultory, in- 

logical consistent 

23 Altruistic, given to service Indifferent, not socially- 

minded 

24 Refined, alive to beauty, Coarse, lacking aesthetic 

artistic quality 

25 Self -controlled, decision, Suggestible, easily led, 



purpose 



uncertain 



26 Good physical carriage, Lack of poise, ill posture, 



dignity 



no grace 



27 Taste in attire, cleanli- Careless in dress, frumpy, 



ness, pride 



no pride 



28 Face smiling, voice pleas- Somber expression, voice 



ing 



unpleasant 



29 Physical endurance, vigor, Quickly tired, weak, slug- 



strength 



gish 



30 Spiritual responsiveness Spiritually weak, incon- 



strong 



stant, uncertain 



31 Prayer life warm, satisfy- Prayer cold, formal, little 

comfort 
Conflict, strain, uncer- 
tainty 



ing 
32 Religious certainty, peace, 
quiet 



33 Religious experience ex- Spiritual life static or 



panding 



losing force 



34 God a near, inspiring re- God distant, unreal, hard 



ality 



of approach 



35 Power to win others to Influence little or nega- 



religion 



tive 



36 Interest in Bible and re- Little concern for religion 



ligion 



and Bible 



THE TEACHER HIMSELF 21 

Positive Qualities Negative Qualities 

37 Religion makes life fuller Religion felt as a limita- 

and richer tion 

38 Deeply believe great fun- Lacking in foundations 

damentals for faith 

39 Increasing triumph over Too frequent falling be- 

sin fore temptation 

40 Religious future hopeful Religious growth uncer- 

tain 

It is highly instructive for one to grade himself on 
this list of qualities; or he may have his friends and 
associates grade him, thus getting an estimate of the 
impression he is making on others. Teachers will find 
it well worth while to attempt to grade each of their 
pupils; for this will give a clearer insight into their 
strengths and weaknesses, and so indicate where to 
direct our teaching. Mark each separate set of qual- 
ities on the scale of 10 for the highest possible attain- 
ment. If the strength of the positive qualities of a cer- 
tain set (as in No. 10) can be marked but 6, then the 
negative qualities of this set must carry a mark of 4. 

THE TEACHER'S BACKGROUND OF PREPARATION 

One can never teach all he knows. Dr. John Dewey 
tells us that the subject matter of our instruction should 
be so well mastered that it has become second nature 
to us; then when we come to the recitation we can give 
our best powers of thought and insight to the human 
element — seeking to understand the boys and girls as we 
teach them. 

Our knowledge and mastery must always be much 
broader than the material we actually present. It 
must be deeper and our grasp more complete than 
can be reached by our pupils. For only this will give 



22 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

us the mental perspective demanded of the teacher. 
Only this will enable our thought to move with cer- 
tainty and assurance in the field of our instruction. 
And only this will win the confidence and respect of 
our pupils who, though their minds are yet unformed, 
have nevertheless a quick sense for mastery or weakness 
as revealed in their teacher. 

A danger confronted by teachers in church 
schools. — Teachers in our church schools are at a 
disadvantage at this point. They constitute a larger 
body than those who teach in the day schools, yet the 
vast army who teach our children religion receive no 
salaries. They are engaged in other occupations, and 
freely give their services as teachers of religion with no 
thought of compensation or reward. The time and 
enthusiasm they give to the Sunday school is a free-will 
offering to a cause in which they believe. All this is 
inspiring and admirable, but it also contains an element 
of danger. 

For it is impossible to set up scholastic and professional 
standards for our teachers of religion as we do for the 
teachers in our day schools. The day-school teacher, 
employed by the state and receiving public funds, 
must go through a certain period of training for his 
position. He must pass examinations in the subject 
matter he is to teach, and in his professional fitness for 
the work of the teacher. He must have a certificate 
granted by responsible authorities before he can enter 
the schoolroom. He must show professional growth 
while in service if he is to receive promotion or con- 
tinue in the vocation. 

Greater personal responsibility on church school 
teacher. — Naturally, all this is impossible with volun- 
teer teachers who receive no pay for their services and 



THE TEACHER HIMSELF 23 

are not employed under legal authority. No com- 
pulsion can be brought to bear; all must rest on the 
sense of duty and of opportunity of the individual 
teacher. Yet the Sunday school teacher needs even 
a more thorough background of preparation than the 
day-school teacher, for the work of instruction in the 
Sunday school is almost infinitely harder than in the 
day school. Religion and morals are more difficult 
to teach than arithmetic and geography. The church 
building usually lacks adequate classroom facilities. 
The lesson material is not as well graded and adapted 
to the children as the day-school texts. The lessons 
come but once a week, and the time for instruction 
is insufficient. The children do not prepare their les- 
sons, and so come to the Sunday school lacking the 
mental readiness essential to receiving instruction. 

This all means that the Sunday school teacher must 
rise to a sense of his responsibilities. He must realize 
that he holds a position of influence second to none in 
the spiritual development of his pupils. He must 
remember that he is dealing with a seed-time whose 
harvest involves the fruits of character and destiny. 
With these facts in mind he must ask himself whether 
he is justified in standing before his class as teacher 
without having given the time and effort necessary for 
complete preparation. 

The teacher and his Bible. — The teacher should 
know his Bible. This means far more than to know 
its text and characters. The Bible is history, it is 
literature, it is a treatise on morals, it is philosophy, 
it is a repository of spiritual wisdom, it is a handbook 
of inspiration and guidance to the highest fife man has 
in any age conceived. 

To master the Bible one must have a background 



24 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

of knowledge of the life and history of its times. He 
must enter into the spirit and genius of the Hebrew 
nation, know their aspirations, their political and 
economic problems, and understand their tragedies 
and sufferings. He must know the historical and social 
setting of the Jewish people, the nations and civiliza- 
tions that surrounded them, and the customs, mode 
of life, and trend of thought of contemporaneous peoples. 

Not all of these things can be learned from the Bible 
itself. One must make use of the various helps and 
commentaries now available to Bible students. The 
religions of ancient Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, Greece, 
and Rome should be studied. Ancient literatures should 
be placed under tribute, and every means employed to 
gain a working knowledge of the social medium out 
of which the Christian religion developed. 

The teacher's knowledge of children. — Time was 
when we thought of the child as a miniature man, dif- 
fering from adults on the physical side only in size and 
strength, and on the mental side only in power and 
grasp of thought. Now we know better. We know 
that the child differs from the adult not only in the 
quantity but also in the quality of his being. 

It is the business of the teacher to understand how 
the child thinks. What is the child's concept of God? 
What is the character of the child's prayer? How 
does the child feel when he takes part in the acts of 
worship? We talk to the child about serving God; 
what is the child's understanding of service to God? 
We seek to train the child to loyalty to the church; 
what does the church stand for to the child? We teach 
the child about sin and forgiveness; just what is the 
child's comprehension of sin, and what does he under- 
stand by forgiveness? We tell the child that he must 



THE TEACHER HIMSELF 25 

love God and the Christ; can a child control his affec- 
tions as he will, or do they follow the trend of his thoughts 
and experiences? These are not idle questions. They 
are questions that must be answered by every teacher 
who would be more than the blind leader of the blind. 

Coming to know the child. — How shall the teacher 
come to know the child? Professor George Herbert 
Palmer sets forth a great truth when he says that the 
first quality of a great teacher is the quality of vicari- 
ousness. By this he means the ability on the part of 
the teacher to step over in his imagination and take 
the place of the child. To look at the task with the 
child's mind and understanding, to feel the appeal of 
a lesson or story through the child's emotions, to con- 
front a temptation with the child's power of will and 
self-control — this ability is the beginning of wisdom 
for those who would understand childhood. The teacher 
must first of all, therefore, be a sympathetic investi- 
gator in the laboratory of child life. Not only in the 
Sunday school, but daily, he must observe, study, seek 
to interpret children. 

Nor should the teacher of religion neglect the books 
on the child and his religion. Many investigators are 
giving their time and abilities to studying child nature 
and child religion. A mastery of their findings will 
save us many mistakes in the leadership and training 
of children. A knowledge of their methods of study 
will show us how ourselves more intelligently to study 
childhood. Comprehension of the principles they repre- 
sent, coupled with the results of our own direct inter- 
pretation of children, will convince us that, while each 
child differs from every other, certain fundamental 
laws apply to all childhood. It is the teacher's task and 
privilege to master these laws. 



26 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

Knowledge of technique. — Teaching is an art, which 
must be learned the same as any other art. True, 
there are those who claim that anyone who knows a 
thing can teach it; but often the teacher who makes 
such a claim is himself the best refutation pf its validity 
when he comes before his class. Probably most of us 
have known eminent specialists in their field of learn- 
ing who were but indifferent teachers. It is not that 
they knew too much about their subjects, but that they 
had not mastered the art of its presentation to others. 

The class hour is the teacher's great opportunity. 
His final measure as a teacher is taken as he stands 
before his class in the recitation. Here he succeeds or 
fails. In fact, here the whole system of religious educa- 
tion succeeds or fails. For it is in this hour, where the 
teacher meets his pupils face to face and mind to mind, 
that all else culminates. It is for this hour that the 
Sunday school is organized, the classrooms provided, 
and the lesson material prepared. It is in this hour 
that the teacher succeeds in kindling the interest, 
stirring the thought and feeling, and grounding the 
loyalty of his class. Or, failing in this, it is in the reci- 
tation hour that the teacher leaves the spiritual life 
of the child untouched by his contact with the Sunday 
school and so defeats its whole intent and purpose. 

The teacher of religion should therefore ask himself: 
' 'What is my craftsmanship in instruction? Do I know 
how to present this material so that it will take hold 
upon my class? Do I know the technique of the recita- 
tion hour, and the principles of good teaching? Have I 
read what the scholars have written and what the 
experience of others has to teach me. Have I definitely 
planned and sought for skill? Is my work in the class- 
room the best that I can make it?" 



THE TEACHER HIMSELF 27 

The teacher must continuously be a student — 

The successful teacher of religion must, therefore, be 
a student. He must continually grow in knowledge 
and in teaching power. There is no possibility of be- 
coming ' 'prepared" through the reading of certain 
books and the pursuit of certain courses of study and 
then having this preparation serve without further 
growth. The famous Dr. Arnold, an insatiable student 
until the day of his death, when asked why he found 
it necessary to prepare for each day's lessons, said he 
preferred that his pupils "should drink from a running 
stream rather than from a stagnant pool." This, then, 
should be the teacher's standard: A broad background 
of general preparation, constant reading and study in the 
field of religion and religious teaching, special preparation 
for each lesson taught. 

The churches of each community should unite in 
providing a school for teacher training. Where the 
community training school cannot be organized, indi- 
vidual churches should organize training classes for 
their teachers. Such schools and classes have been 
provided in hundreds of places, and the movement is 
rapidly spreading. Wherever such opportunities are 
available the best church school teachers are flocking 
to the classes and giving the time and effort necessary 
to prepare for better service. 

Even where no organized training classes are at present 
available, the earnest teacher can gain much help 
from following an organized course of reading in such 
lines as those just given. Excellent texts are available 
in most of these fields. 

The reward. — One deep and abiding satisfaction may 
come to the teacher who feels the burden of reaching 
the standards set forth in this lesson. It is all worth 



28 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

while* Some make the mistake of charging against 
their task all the time, effort and devotion that go 
into preparing themselves as teachers of religion. But 
this is a false philosophy. For a great work greatly per- 
formed leaves the stamp of its greatness on the worker. 
All that we do toward making out of ourselves better 
teachers of childhood adds to our own spiritual equip- 
ment. All the study, prayer, and consecration we 
give to our work for the children returns a hundred- 
fold to us in a richer experience and a larger capacity 
for service. 

i. Recall several teachers whom you remember best 
from your own pupil days, and see whether you can esti- 
mate the qualities in their character or teaching which 
are responsible for the lasting impression. 

2. Are you able to determine from the character chart 
which are your strongest qualities? Which are your 
weakest qualities? Just what methods are you planning 
to use to improve your personality? 

3. In thinking of your class, are you able to judge in 
connection with different ones on what qualities of char- 
acter they most need help? Are you definitely seeking 
to help on these points in your teaching? 

4. Do you think that church-school teachers could 
pass as good an examination on what they undertake to 
teach as day-school teachers? Are the standards too 
high for day-school teachers? Are they high enough 
for church-school teachers? 

5. Have you seen Sunday-school teachers at work who 
evidently did not know their Bibles ? Have you seen others 
who seemed to know their Bibles but who were ignorant of 
childhood? Have you seen others whose technique of 
teaching might have been improved by a little careful 
study and preparation? Are you willing to apply these 
three tests to yourself? 



THE TEACHER HIMSELF 20 

FOR FURTHER READING 

Palmer, The Ideal Teacher. 
Hyde, The Teacher's Philosophy. 
Slattery, Living Teachers. 
Home, The Teacher as Artist. 



CHAPTER II 
THE GREAT OBJECTIVE 

All teaching has two objectives — the subject taught 
and the person taught. When we teach John grammar 
(or the Bible) we teach grammar (or the Bible), of 
course; but we also teach John. And the greater of 
these two objectives is John. It is easy enough to 
attain the lesser of the objectives. Anyone of fair 
intelligence can master a given amount of subject 
matter and present it to a class; but it is a far more 
difficult thing to understand the child — to master the 
inner secrets of the mind, the heart, and the springs 
of action of the learner. 

Who can measure the potentialities that lie hidden 
in the soul of a child! Just as the acorn contains the 
whole of the great oak tree enfolded in its heart, so 
the child-life has hidden in it all the powers of heart 
and mind which later reach full fruition. Nothing is 
created through the process of growth and develop- 
ment. Education is but a process of unfolding and 
bringing into action the powers and capacities with 
which the life at the beginning was endowed by its 
Creator. 

THE CHILD AS THE GREAT OBJECTIVE 

The child comes into the world — indeed, comes into 
the school — with much potential and very little actual 
capital. Nature has through heredity endowed him 
with infinite possibilities. But these are but promises; 

30 



THE GREAT OBJECTIVE 31 

they are still in embryonic form. The powers of mind 
and soul at first He dormant, waiting for the awakening 
that comes through the touch of the world about and 
for the enlightenment that comes through instruction. 

Given just the right touch at the opportune moment, 
and these potential powers spring into dynamic abilities, 
a blessing to their possessor and to the world they 
serve. Left without the right training, or allowed to 
turn in wrong directions, and these infinite capacities 
for good may become instruments for evil, a curse to 
the one who owns them and a blight to those against 
whom they are directed. 

Children the bearers of spiritual culture. — The 
greatest business of any generation or people is, there- 
fore, the education of its children. Before this all other 
enterprises and obligations must give way, no matter 
what their importance. It is at this point that civiliza- 
tion succeeds or fails. Suppose that for a single gen- 
eration our children should, through some inconceivable 
stroke of fate, refuse to open their minds to instruction 
— suppose they should refuse to learn our science, our 
religion, our literature, and all the rest of the culture 
which the human race has bought at so high a price 
of sacrifice and suffering. Suppose they should turn 
deaf ears to the appeal of art, and reject the claims 
of morality, and refuse the lessons of Christianity and 
the Bible. Where then would all our boasted progress 
be? Where would our religion be? Where would 
modern civilization be? All would revert to primitive 
barbarism, through the failure of this one generation, 
and the race would be obliged to start anew the long 
climb toward the mountain top of spiritual freedom. 

Each generation must therefore create anew in its 
own life and experience the spiritual culture of the race. 



32 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

Each child that comes to us for instruction, weak, ig- 
norant, and helpless though he be, is charged with his 
part in the great program God has marked out for 
man to achieve. Each of these little ones is the bearer 
of an immortal soul, whose destiny it is to take its 
quality and form from the life it lives among its fellows. 
And ours is the dread and fascinating responsibility 
for a time to be the mentor and guide of this celestial 
being. Ours it is to deal with the infinite possibilities 
of child-life, and to have a hand in forming the char- 
acter that this immortal soul will take. Ours it is to 
have the thrilling experience of experimenting in the 
making of a destiny! 

Childhood's capacity for growth. — Nor must we 
ever think that because the child is young, his brain 
unripe, and his experience and wisdom lacking, our 
responsibility is the less. For the child's earliest im- 
pressions are the most lasting, and the earliest influ- 
ences that act upon his life are the most powerful in 
determining its outcome. Remember that the babe, 
starting at birth with nothing, has in a few years learned 
speech, become acquainted with much of his immediate 
world, formed many habits which will follow him 
through life, and established the beginnings of per- 
manent character and disposition. Remember the 
indelible impression of the bedside prayers of your 
mother, of the earliest words of counsel of your father, 
of the influence of a loved teacher, and then know that 
other children are to-day receiving their impressions 
from us, their parents and teachers. 

Consider for a moment the child as he comes to us 
for instruction. We no longer insist with the older 
theologies that he is completely under the curse of 
"original sin," nor do we believe with certain sen- 



THE GREAT OBJECTIVE 33 

timentalists that he comes "trailing clouds of glory." 
We believe that he has infinite capacities for good, 
and equally infinite capacities for evil, either of which 
may be developed. We know that at the beginning 
the child is sinless, pure of heart, his life undefiled. 
To know this is enough to show us our part. This is 
to lead the child aright until he is old enough to follow 
the right path of his own accord, to ground him in 
the motives and habits that tend to right living, and 
so to turn his mind, heart, and will to God that his 
whole being seeks accord with the Infinite. 

Religious conservation. — If our leading of the child 
is wise, and his response is ready, there will be no fall- 
ing away from a normal Christian life and a growing 
consciousness of God. This does not mean that the child 
will never do wrong, nor commit sin. It does not mean 
that the youth will not, when the age of choice has 
come, make a personal decision for Christ and conse- 
crate his life anew to Christ's service. It means, rather, 
that the whole attitude of mind, and the complete trend 
of life of the child will be religious. It means that the 
original purity of innocence will grow into a conscious 
and joyful acceptance of the Christ-standard. It means 
that the child need never know a time when he is not 
within the Kingdom, and growing to fuller stature 
therein. It means that we should set our aim at con- 
servation instead of reclamation as the end of our re- 
ligious training. 

Yet what a proportion of the energy of the church 
is to-day required for the reclaiming of those who 
should never have been allowed to go astray! Evan- 
gelistic campaigns, much of the preaching, "personal 
work," Salvation Army programs, and many other 
agencies are of necessity organized for the reclaiming 



34 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

of men and women who but yesterday were children 
in our homes and church schools, and plastic to our 
training. What a tragic waste of energy! — and then 
those who never return! Should we not be able more 
successfully to carry out the Master's injunction, 
"Feed my lambs"? 

The child-Christian. — All of these considerations 
point to the inevitable conclusion that the child is the 
great objective of our teaching. Indeed, the child 
ought to be the objective of the work of the whole 
church. The saving of its children from wandering 
outside the fold is the supreme duty and the strategic 
opportunity of the church, standing out above all 
other claims whatever. We are in some danger of 
forgetting that when Jesus wanted to show his disciples 
the standard of an ideal Christian he "took a child 
and set him in the midst of them." We do not always 
realize that to keep a child a Christian is much more 
important than to reclaim him after he has been allowed 
to get outside the fold. 

The recent report of a series of special religious 
meetings states that there were a certain number of 
conversions "exclusive of children" the implication be- 
ing that the really important results were in the de- 
cisions of the adults. The same point of view was 
revealed when a church official remarked after the 
reception of a large group of new members, "It was 
an inspiring sight, except that there were so few adults!" 
When shall we learn that if we do our duty by the 
children there will be fewer adults left outside for the 
church to receive? 

NO SUBJECT MATTER AND END IN ITSELF 

The teacher must first of all take his stand with the 



THE GREAT OBJECTIVE 35 

child. He must not allow his attention and enthusi- 
asms to become centered on the matter he teaches. 
He must not be satisfied when he has succeeded in 
getting a certain fact lodged in the minds of his pupils. 
He must first, last, and all the time look upon subject 
matter, no matter how beautiful and true it may be, 
as a means to an end. The end sought is certain de- 
sired changes in the life, thought, and experience of 
the child. There are hosts of teachers who can teach 
grammar (or the Bible), but comparatively few who 
can teach John. 

This does not mean that the material we teach is 
unimportant, nor that we can fulfill our duty as teachers 
without the use of interesting, fruitful, and inspiring 
subject matter. It does not mean that we are not to 
love the subject we teach, and feel our heart thrill in 
response to its beauty and truth. 

Making subject matter a means instead of an 
end. — One who is not filled with enthusiasm for a 
subject has no moral right to attempt to teach it, for 
the process will be dead and lifeless, failing to kindle 
the fires of response in his pupils and lacking in vital 
results. But the true teacher never loves a body of 
subject matter for its own sake; he loves it for what 
through it he can accomplish in the lives of those he 
teaches. 

As a student, searching for the hidden meanings and 
thrilling at the unfolding beauties of some field of 
truth which we are investigating, we may love the thing 
we study for its own sake; and who of us does not feel 
in that way toward sections of our Bible, a poem, the 
record of noble lives, or the perfection of some bit of 
scientific truth? But when we face about and become 
the teacher, when our purpose is not our own learning 



36 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

but the teaching of another, then our attitude must 
change. We will then love our cherished body of ma- 
terial not less, but differently. We will now care for 
the thing we teach as an artisan cares for his familiar 
instruments or the artist cares for his brush — we will 
prize it as the means through which we shall attain a 
desired end. 

Subject matter always subordinate to life. — 
It will help us to understand the significance of this 
fundamental principle if we pause to realize that all 
the matter we teach our children had its origin in hu- 
man experience; it was first a part of human life. Our 
scientific discoveries have come out of the pressure of 
necessities that nature has put upon us, and what we 
now put into our textbooks first was lived by men and 
women in the midst of the day's activities. The deep 
thoughts, the beautiful sentiments, and the high aspira- 
tions expressed in our literature first existed and found 
expression in the lives of people. The cherished truths 
of our Bible and its laws for our spiritual development 
appeal to our hearts just because they have arisen from 
the lives of countless thousands, and so have the reality 
of living experience. 

There is, therefore, no abstract truth for truth's sake. 
Just as all our culture material — our science, our liter- 
ature, our body of religious truth — had its rise out 
of the experience of men engaged in the great business 
of living, so all this material must go back to life for 
its meaning and significance. The science we teach 
in our schools attains its end, not when it is learned 
as a group of facts, but when it has been set at work 
by those who learn it to the end that they live better, 
happier, and more fruitful lives. The literature we offer 
our children has fulfilled its purpose, not when they have 



THE GREAT OBJECTIVE 37 

studied the mechanism of its structure, read its pages, 
or committed to memory its lines, but when its glow- 
ing ideals and high aspirations have been realized in 
the lives of those who learn it. 

And so this also holds for the Bible and its religious 
truth. Its rich lessons full of beautiful meaning may- 
be recited and its choicest verses stored in the memory 
and still be barren of results, except as they are put 
to the test and find expression in living experience. 
The only true test of learning a thing is whether the 
learner lives it. The only true test of the value of what 
one learns is the extent to which it affects his daily life. 
The value of our teaching is therefore always to be 
measured by the degree to which it finds expression 
in the lives of our pupils. John, not grammar (nor 
even the Bible), is the true objective of our teaching. 

EFFECT OF THE OBJECTIVE ON OUR TEACHING 

Not only will this point of view vitalize our teach- 
ing for the pupils, but it will also save it from becoming 
commonplace and routine for ourselves. This truth is 
brought out in a conversation that occurred between 
an old schoolmaster and his friend, a business man. 

The true objective saves from the rut of routine. 
— Said the business man, "Do you teach the same 
subjects year after year?" 

The schoolmaster replied that he did. 

"Do you not finally come to know this material 
all by heart, so that it is old to you?" asked the friend. 

The schoolmaster answered that such was the case. 

1 'And yet you must keep going over the same ground, 
class after class and year after year!" exclaimed the 
business man. 

The schoolmaster admitted that it was so. 



38 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

"Then," said his friend, "I should think that you 
would tire beyond endurance of the old facts, and grow 
weary beyond expression of repeating them after the 
charm of novelty and newness has gone. How do you 
live through the sameness and grind?" 

"You forget one thing!" exclaimed the old school- 
master, who had learned the secret of the great objective. 
"You forget that I am not really teaching that old 
subject matter at all; I am teaching living boys and 
girls! The matter I teach may become familiar. It 
may have lost the first thrill of novelty. But the boys 
and girls are always new; their hearts and minds are 
always fresh and inviting; their lives are always open 
to new impressions, and their feet ready to be turned 
in new directions. The old subject 'matter is but the 
means by which I work upon this living material that 
comes to my classroom from day to day. I should no 
more think of growing tired of it than the musician 
would think of growing tired of his violin." 

And so the schoolmaster's friend was well answered. 

Unsafe measures of success. — It is possible to lodge 
much subject matter in the mind which, once there, 
does not function. It is possible to teach many facts 
which play no part in shaping the idealsj quickening 
the enthusiasms, or directing the conduct, And all 
mental material which lies dead and unused is but so 
much rubbish and lumber of the mind. It plays no 
part in the child's true education, and it dulls the edge 
of the learner's interest and his enjoyment of the school 
and its instruction. 

It is possible to have the younger children in our 
Sunday schools from week to week and still fail to 
secure sufficient hold on them so that they continue 
to come after they have reached the age of deciding 



THE GREAT OBJECTIVE 39 

for themselves. The proof of this is all too evident 
in the relatively small proportion of youth in our church- 
school classes between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five. 

It is possible to offer the child lessons from the Bible 
throughout all the years of childhood, and yet fail to 
ground sufficient interest in the Bible or religion so 
that in later years the man or woman naturally turns 
to the Bible for guidance or comfort, and fails to make 
religion the determining principle of the life. 

The child the only true measure of success. — 
Let us therefore be sure of our objective. Let us never 
be proud nor satisfied that we have taught our class 
so much subject matter — so many facts, maxims, or 
lessons of whatever kind. We shall need to teach 
them all these things, and teach them well. But we 
must inquire further. We must ask, What have these 
things done for the boys and girls of my class? What 
has been the outcome of my teaching? How much 
effect has it had in life, character, conduct? In 
how far are my pupils different for having been in my 
class, and for the lessons I have taught them? In 
how far have I accomplished the true objective of my 
teaching? 

Let us never feel secure merely because the children 
are found in the Sunday school, and because the sta- 
tistical reports show increase in numbers and in average 
attendance. These things are all well; without them 
we cannot do the work which the church should do 
for its children. But these are but the externals, the 
outward signs. We must still inquire what real in- 
fluence the school is having on the growing spiritual 
life of its children. We must ask what part our in- 
struction is having in the making of Christians. We 
must measure all our success in terms of the child's 



4 o HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

response to our efforts. We must realize that we have 
failed except as we have caused the child's spiritual 
nature to unfold and his character to grow toward the 
Christ ideal. 

i. As you think of your own teaching, are you able 
to decide whether you have been sufficiently clear in 
your objective? Have you rather assumed that if you 
presented the lessons as they came the results must of 
necessity follow, or have you been alive to the real effects 
on your pupils? 

2. Are you able to discover definite changes that are 
working out in the lives of your pupils from month to 
month as you have them under your instruction? Are 
they more reverent, more truthful, more sure against 
temptation, increasingly conscious of God in their lives? 
What other effects might you look for? 

3. Do you think that the church is in some degree 
overlooking its most strategic opportunity in not pro- 
viding more efficiently for the religious education of its 
children? If more attention were given to religious nur- 
ture of children, would the problems of evangelism be 
less pressing, and a larger proportion of adults found in 
the church? What can the church school do to help? 
What can your class do? 

4. Do you love the matter that you seek to teach the 
children? Do you love it for what it means to you, 
or for what through it you can do for them? Do you 
look upon the material you teach truly as a means and 
not as an end? Are you teaching subject matter or 
children? 

5. Do you feel the real worth and dignity of child- 
hood? Do you sometimes stop to remember that the 
ignorant child before you to-day may become the Phillips 
Brooks, the Henry Ward Beecher, the Livingstone, the 
Frances Willard, the Luther of to-morrow? Do you 
realize the responsibility that one takes upon himself 



THE GREAT OBJECTIVE 41 

when he undertakes to guide the development of a 
life? 

6. Can you now make a statement of the measures 
that you will wish to apply to determine your degree of 
success as a teacher? It will be worth your while to 
try to make a list of the immediate objectives you will 
seek for your class to attain in their personal lives. Keep 
this list and see whether it is modified by the chapters 
that lie ahead. 

FOR FURTHER READING 

Harrison, A Study of Child Nature. 

Moxcey, Girlhood and Character. 

Dawson, The Child and His Religion. 

Forbush, The Boy Problem. 

Richardson (Editor), The American Home Series. 

Richardson, Religious Education of Adolescents. 



CHAPTER III 

THE FOURFOLD FOUNDATION 1 

All good teaching rests on a fourfold foundation of 
principles. These principles are the same from the 
kindergarten to the university, and they apply equally 
to the teaching of religion in the church school or sub- 
jects in the day school. Every teacher must answer 
four questions growing out of these principles, or, 
failing to answer them, classify himself with the un- 
worthy and incompetent. These are the four supreme 
questions: 

i. What definite aims have I set as the goal of my 
teaching? What outcomes do I seek? 

2. What material, or subject matter, will best accom- 
plish these aims? What shall I stress and what shall 
I omit? 

3. How can this material best be organized, or ar- 
ranged, to adapt it to the child in his learning? How 
shall I plan my material? 

4. What shall be my plan or method of presentation 
of this material to make it achieve its purpose? What 
of my technique of instruction? 

THE AIM IN TEACHING RELIGION 

First of all, the teacher of religion must have an aim; 
he must know what ends he seeks to accomplish. Some 
statistically minded person has computed that, with 

1 The point of view and in some degree the outlines of this and several follow- 
ing chapters have been adapted from the author's text "Class-Room Method 
and Management," by permission of the publishers, The Bobbs- Merrill Co.^ 
Indianapolis. 

42 



THE FOURFOLD FOUNDATION 43 

all the marvelous accuracy of aiming modern guns, 
more than one thousand shots are fired for every man 
hit in battle. One cannot but wonder how many shots 
would be required to hit a man if the guns were not 
aimed at anything! 

Is the analogy too strong? Is the teacher more likely 
than the gunner to reach his objective without con- 
sciously aiming at it? And can the teacher set up 
for attainment as definite aims as are offered the gunner? 
Do we know just what ends we seek in the religious 
training of our children? 

Life itself sets the aim. — This much at least is cer- 
tain. We know where to look for the aims that must 
guide us. We shall not try to formulate an aim for 
our teaching out of our own thought or reasoning upon 
the subject. We shall rather look out upon life, the 
the life the child is now living and the later life he is 
to live, and ask: "What are the demands that life makes 
on the individual? What is the equipment this child 
will need as he meets the problems and tests of experience 
in the daily round of living? What qualities and powers 
will he require that he may the most fully realize his 
own potentialities and at the same time most fruit- 
fully serve his generation? What abilities must he 
have trained in order that he may the most completely 
express God's plan for his life?" When we can answer 
such questions as these we shall have defined the aim 
of religious education and of our teaching. 

The knowledge aim. — First of all, life demands 
knowledge. There are things that we must know if 
we are to avoid dangers and pitfalls. Knowledge shows 
the way, while ignorance shrouds the path in darkness. 
To be without knowledge is to be as a ship without 
a rudder, left to drift on the rocks and shoals. The 



44 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

religious life is intelligent; it must grasp, understand, 
and know how to use many great truths. To supply 
our children with religious knowledge is, therefore, one 
of the chief aims of our teaching. 

Yet not all knowledge is of equal worth. Even 
religious knowledge is of all degrees of fruitfulness. 
Some knowledge, once acquired, fails to function. It 
has no point of contact with our lives. It does not 
deal with matters we are meeting in the day's round 
of experience. It therefore lies in the mind unused, or, 
because it is not used, it quickly passes from the memory 
and is gone. Such knowledge as this is of no real value. 
It is not worth the time and effort put upon its mastery; 
and it crowds out other and more fruitful knowledge 
that might take its place. 

To be a true end of education, knowledge must be 
of such nature that it can be put at work. It must relate 
to actual needs and problems. It must have imme- 
diate and vital points of contact with the child's com- 
mon experiences. The child must be able to see the 
relation of the truths he learns to his own interests 
and activities. He must feel their value and see their 
use in his work and in his play. This is as true of re- 
ligious knowledge as of knowledge of other kinds. The 
religious knowledge the child needs, therefore, is a knowl- 
edge that can at once be incorporated in his life. To 
supply the child with knowledge of this vital, fruitful 
sort becomes, then, one great aim in the teaching of 
religion. 

But knowledge alone is not enough. Indeed, knowl- 
edge is but the beginning of religious education, whereas 
we have been in danger of considering it the end. Many 
there are who know the ways of life but do not follow 
them. Many know the paths of duty, but choose an 



THE FOURFOLD FOUNDATION 45 

easier way. Many know the road to service and achieve- 
ment, but do not enter thereon. If to do were as easy 
as to know what to do, then all of us would mount 
to greater heights. 

The attitudes' aim. — Life demands goals set ahead 
for achievement. It must have clearly denned the 
11 worth whiles" which lead to endeavor. Along with 
the knowledge that guides our steps must be the im- 
pulses that drive to right action. Besides knowing 
what to do there must be inner compelling forces that 
get things done. The chief source of our goals and of 
the driving power within us is what, for want of a 
better term, we may call our attitudes. 

Prominent among our attitudes are the interests, 
enthusiasms, affections, ambitions, ideals, appreciations, 
loyalties, standards, and attachments which predominate. 
These all have their roots set deep in our emotions; 
they are the measure of life's values. They are the 
" worth whiles" which give life its quality, and which 
define the goal for effort. 

Chesterton tells us that the most important thing 
about any man is the kind of philosophy he keeps — that 
is to say, his attitudes. For it is out of one's attitudes 
that his philosophy of life develops, and that he settles 
upon the great aims to which he devotes himself. It 
is in one's attitudes that we find the springs of action 
and the incentives to endeavor. It is in attitudes that 
we find the forces that direct conduct and lead to char- 
acter. 

To train the intellect and store the mind with knowl- 
edge without developing a fund of right attitudes to 
shape the course of action is therefore even fraught 
with danger. The men in positions of political power 
who often misgovern cities or use public office as a 



46 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

means to private gain do not act from lack of knowledge 
or in ignorance of civic duty; their failure is one of ideals 
and loyalties; their attitude toward social trust and 
service to their fellow men is wrong. The men who 
use their power of wealth to oppress the poor and help- 
less, or unfairly exploit the labor of others to their 
own selfish advantage do not sin from lack of knowledge; 
their weakness lies in false standards and unsocial 
attitudes. Men and women everywhere who depart 
from paths of honor and rectitude fall more often from 
the lack of high ideals than because they do not know 
the better way. 

The goal and the motive power in all such cases comes 
from a false philosophy of life; it is grounded in wrong 
attitudes. The education of those who thus miscon- 
ceive life has failed of one of its chief aims — to develop 
right attitudes. Hence character is wanting. 

The conduct, or application, aim. — The third and 
ultimate aim of education has been implied in the 
first two; it is conduct, right living. This is the final 
and sure test of the value of what we teach — how does 
it find expression in action? Do our pupils think dif- 
ferently, speak differently, act differently here and now 
because of what we teach them? Are they stronger 
when they meet temptation from day to day? Are 
they more sure to rise to the occasion when they con- 
front duty or opportunity? Are their lives more pure 
and free from sin? Do the lessons we teach find ex- 
pression in the home, in the school, and on the play- 
ground? Is there a real outcome in terms of daily living? 

These are all fair questions, for knowledge is with- 
out meaning except as it becomes a guide to action. 
High ideals and beautiful enthusiasms attain their 
end only when they have eventuated in worthy deeds. 



THE FOURFOLD FOUNDATION 47 

What we do because of our training is the final test 
of its value. Conduct, performance, achievement are 
the ultimate measures of what our education has been 
worth to us. By this test we must measure the effects 
of our teaching. 

Summary of the threefold aim. — The aim in teach- 
ing the child religion is therefore definite, even if it is 
difficult to attain. This aim may be stated in three 
great requirements which life itself puts upon the child 
and every individual: 

i. Fruitful knowledge; knowledge of religious truths 
that can be set at work in the daily life of the child now 
and in the years that lie ahead. 

2. Right attitudes; the religious warmth, responsive- 
ness, interests, ideals, loyalties, and enthusiasms which 
lead to action and to a true sense of what is most worth 
while. 

3. Skill in living; the power and will to use the re- 
ligious knowledge and enthusiasms supplied by education 
in shaping the acts and conduct of the daily life. 

True, we may state our aim in religious teaching in 
more general terms than these, but the meaning will be 
the same. We may say that we would lead the child 
to a knowledge of God as Friend and Father; that we 
seek to bring him into a full, rich experience of spiritual 
union with the divine; that we desire to ground his 
life in personal purity and free it from sin; that we 
would spur him to a life crowned with deeds of self- 
sacrifice and Christlike service; that we would make 
out of him a true Christian. This is well and is a high 
ideal, but in the end it sums up the results of the re- 
ligious knowledge, attitudes, and acts we have already 



48 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

set forth as our aim. These are the parts of which the 
other is the whole; they are the immediate and specific 
ends which lead to the more distant and general. Let 
us, therefore, conceive our aim in both ways — the ideal 
Christian life as the final goal toward which we are 
leading, and the knowledge, attitudes, and acts that 
make up to-day's life as so many steps taken toward 
the goal. 

SELECTING THE SUBJECT MATTER 

After the aim the subject matter. When we would 
build some structure we first get plan and purpose in 
mind; then we select the material that shall go into it. 
It is so with education. Once we have set before us 
the aim we would reach, our next question is, What 
shall be the means of its attainment? When we have 
fixed upon the fruitful knowledge, the right attitudes, 
and the lines of conduct and action which must result 
from our teaching, we must then ask, What means 
shall we select to achieve these ends? What material 
or subject matter shall we teach in the church school? 

The subject matter he presents is the instrumentality 
by which the teacher must accomplish his aims for his 
class. Through this material he must awaken thought, 
store the mind with vital truths, arouse new interests, 
create ideals and lead the life to God. As the artist 
works with brush and paint, with tool and clay, so the 
teacher must work with truths and lesson materials. 

Guiding principles. — Two great principles must guide 
in the selection of subject matter for religious instruction: 

i. The material must be suited to the aims we seek. 
2. The material must be adapted to the child. 

The tools and instruments the workman uses must 



THE FOURFOLD FOUNDATION 49 

be adapted to the purpose sought. Ask the expert 
craftsman what kind of plane or chisel you should buy 
for a piece of work you have in mind, and he will ask 
you just what ends you seek, what uses you would put 
them to. Ask the architect what materials you should 
have for the structure you would build, and he will 
tell you that depends on the plan and purpose of your 
building. 

The material must fit the aim. — What materials of 
religious truth should the teacher bring to his class? 
The answer is that truths and lessons must be suited to 
the aim we seek. Would we lead our children to under- 
stand the Fatherhood of God and to love him for his ten- 
der care? Then the lessons must contain this thought, 
and not be built on irrelevant material. Would we 
lead youth to catch the thrill and inspiration of noble 
lives, to pattern conduct after worthy deeds? Then our 
lesson material must deal with the high and fine in 
character and action, and not with trivial things of 
lesser value. 

So also, if we would capture the interest of childhood 
for the church school and bind its loyalty to the church, 
the subject matter we offer and the lessons we teach 
in the house of God must contain the glow and throb 
of life, and not be dry and barren. If we would awaken 
religious feeling and link the emotions to God, we must 
not teach empty lessons, meaningless dates, and musty 
facts that fail to reach the heart because they have no 
inner meaning. 

Small use to set high aims and then miss them for 
want of material suited for their attainment. Small 
use to catalogue the fine qualities of heart and mind we 
would train in our children and then fail of our aim 
because we choose wrong tools with which to work. 



50 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

Not all facts found in the Bible are of equal worth to 
children, nor are all religious truths of equal value. Noth- 
ing should be taught just because it is true, nor even 
because it is found in the Bible. The final question is 
whether this lesson material is the best we can choose 
for the child himself; whether it will give him the knowl- 
edge he can use, train the attitudes he requires, and 
lead to the acts and conduct that should rule his 
life. 

The material must fit the child. — The subject mat- 
ter we teach must also be fitted to the child. It must be 
within his grasp and understanding. We do not feed 
strong meat to babes. What may be the grown per- 
son's meat may be to the child poison. It does no good 
to load the mind with facts it cannot comprehend. There 
is no virtue in truths, however significant and pro- 
found, if they are beyond the reach of the child's expe- 
rience. Matter which is not assimilated to the under- 
standing is soon forgotten; or if retained, but weighs 
upon the intellect and dulls its edge for further 
learning. 

There can be little doubt that we have quite con- 
stantly in most of our Sunday schools forced upon the 
child no small amount of matter that is beyond his mental 
grasp, and so far outside his daily experience that it 
conveys little or no meaning. We have over-intellectual- 
ized the child's religion. Jesus was "to the Greeks 
foolishness" because they had no basis of experience 
upon which to understand his pure and unselfish life. 
May not many of the facts, figures, dates, and events 
from an ancient religion which we give young children 
likewise be to them but foolishness! May not the 
lessons upon some of the deepest, finest and most precious 
concepts in our religion, such as faith, atonement, 



THE FOURFOLD FOUNDATION 51 

regeneration, repentance, the Trinity, be lost or worse 
than lost upon our children because we force thern 
upon unripe minds and hearts at an age when they are 
not ready for thern? 

Let us then, not forget the child when we teach religion ! 
Let us not assume that truths and lessons are an end 
in themselves. Let us constantly ask, as we prepare 
our lessons, Will this material work as a true leaven 
in the life? Will it take root and blossom into character, 
fine thought, and worthy conduct? While our children 
dumbly ask for living bread let us not give them dead 
stones and dry husks, which cannot feed their souls! 
Let us adapt our subject matter to the child. 

The use of stress and neglect. — That the lesson 
material printed in the Sunday school booklets is not 
always well adapted to the children every teacher 
knows. But there it is, and what can we do but teach 
it, though it may sometimes miss the mark? 

There is one remedy the wise and skillful teacher 
always has at his command. By the use of stress and 
neglect the matter of the lesson may be made to take 
quite different forms. The points that are too difficult 
may be omitted or but little emphasized. The matter 
that best fits the child may be stressed and its appli- 
cation made. Illustrations, stories, and lessons from 
outside sources may be introduced to suit the aim. 
Great truths may be restated in terms within child- 
hood's comprehension. The true teacher, like the 
craftsman, will select now this tool, now that to meet 
his purpose. Regardless of what the printed lesson 
offers, he will reject or use, supplement or replace with 
new material as the needs of his class may demand. 
The true teacher will be the master, and not the servant, 
of the subject matter he uses. 



52 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

HOW SHALL WE ORGANIZE AND PLAN THE LESSONS ? 

When the content of the subject matter has been de- 
cided upon then comes its organization. How shall we 
arrange and plan the material we teach so as to give 
the children the easiest and most natural mode of 
approach to its learning? 

The great law here is that the arrangement of subject 
matter must be psychological. This only means that we 
must always ask ourselves how will the child most 
easily and naturally enter upon the learning of this 
material? How can I organize it for the recitation so 
that it will most strongly appeal to his interest? How 
can I arrange it so that it will be most easily grasped 
and understood? How can I plan the lesson so that its 
relation to immediate life and conduct will be most clear 
and its application most surely made? 

The psychological mode of approach. — I recently 
happened into a junior Sunday school class where the 
lesson was on faith. The teacher evidently did not 
know how to plan for a psychological mode of approach 
to this difficult concept. He began by defining faith 
in Paul's phrase as "the substance of things hoped for; 
the evidence of things not seen." He then went to the 
dictionary definition, which shows the relation of faith 
to belief. He discussed the relation of faith to works, 
as presented in the writings of James. But all to no 
avail. The class was uninterested and inattentive. 
The lesson did not take hold. The time was wasted 
and the opportunity lost. I excused myself and went 
to another classroom. 

Here they had the same topic. But the teacher had 
sought for and found a starting point from which to 
explain the meaning of faith in terms that the children 
could understand. The teacher's eye rested for a mo- 



THE FOURFOLD FOUNDATION 53 

ment on John; then: "John, when does your next birth- 
day come?" 

' 'The sixteenth of next month," replied John promptly. 

"Going to get any presents, do you think?" asked the 
teacher. 

"Yes, sir," answered John with conviction. 

"What makes you think so?" inquired the teacher. 
"Not everybody does receive birthday presents, you 
know." 

"But I am sure I will," persisted John. "You see, 
I know my father and mother. They have never yet 
let one of my birthdays pass without remembering me, 
and I am sure they are not going to begin to forget 
me now. They think too much of me." 

' ' You seem to have a good deal of faith in your father 
and mother," remarked the teacher. 

"Well I guess I have!" was John's enthusiastic re- 
sponse. 

And right at this point the way was wide open to 
show John and the class the meaning of faith in a heav- 
enly Father. The wise teacher had found a point of con- 
tact in John's faith in the love and care of his parents, 
and it was but a step from this to the broader and 
deeper faith in God. 

It is a law of human nature that we are all interested 
first of all in what affects our own lives. Our attention 
turns most easily to what relates to or grows out of our 
own experience. The immediate and the concrete are 
the natural and most effective starting points for our 
thought. The distant and remote exert little appeal 
to our interest; it is the near that counts. Especially 
do these rules hold for children. 

Making sure of a point of contact. — All these facts 
point the way for the teacher in the planning and organ- 



54 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

ization of material for his class. The point of departure 
must always be sought in some immediate interest or 
activity in the life of the child, and not in some abstract 
truth or far-away lesson, however precious these may 
be to the adult Christian. And no lesson is ready for 
presentation until the way into the child's interest and 
comprehension has been found. Many a lesson that 
might have been full of rich spiritual meaning for the 
child has been lost to our pupils because it was presented 
out of season, or because the vital connection between 
the truth and the child's experience was not discovered 
by the teacher. 

This principle suggests that in the main children 
should not be taught religious truths in terms which 
they cannot grasp, nor in such a way that the appli- 
cation to their own lives is not clear. For example, 
the vital truths contained in the church catechisms are 
not for children; the statement of them is too abstract 
and difficult, and the meaning too remote from the 
child's experience. Many of the same truths can be 
presented to children in the form of stories or illustra- 
tions; other of the truths may rest until the child be- 
comes older before claiming his attention. Bible verses 
and sentiments completely outside the child's compre- 
hension are not good material for memorizing. Lessons 
upon the more difficult concepts and deeper problems 
of religion belong to the adult age, and should not be 
forced upon children. 

Our guiding principle, therefore, is to keep close to 
the mind, heart, and daily life of childhood. Then adapt 
the subject matter we teach to the mind, interests, and needs 
of those we teach. Definitions, rules, abstract statements, 
general truths have little or no value with children. 
It is the story, the concrete incident, the direct appli- 



THE FOURFOLD FOUNDATION 55 

cation growing out of their own experiences that takes 
hold. 

PRESENTING THE LESSON — INSTRUCTION 

After the aim has been clearly conceived, and after 
the lesson material has been wisely chosen and properly 
organized, there still remains the most important part 
— that of "getting the lesson across" to the class. 
Many a valuable lesson, full of helpfulness, has been 
lost to the pupils because the teacher lacked the power 
to bring his class to the right pitch for receiving and 
retaining impressions. Many a class period has been 
wasted because the teacher failed to present the ma- 
terial of the lesson so that it gripped interest and com- 
pelled attention. 

Response a test of instruction. — The first test of 
good instruction is the response of the class. Are the 
children alert? Are they keen for discussion, or for 
listening to stories told or applications made? Do they 
think? Do they enjoy the lesson hour, and give them- 
selves happily and whole-heartedly to it? Is their con- 
duct good, and their attitude serious, reverent, and 
attentive? Are they all "in the game," or are there 
laggards, inattentive ones, and mischief-makers? 

These questions are all crucial. For the first law of 
all learning is self -activity. There is no possibility of 
teaching a child who is not mentally awake. Only the 
active mind grasps, assimilates, remembers, applies. 
The birth of new ideas, the reaching of convictions, the 
arriving at decisions all come in moments of mental 
stress and tension. Lethargy of thought and feeling 
is fatal to all class-room achievement. Therefore, no 
matter how keenly alert the teacher's mind may be, 
no matter how skillful his analysis of an important 



56 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

truth may be if his class sit with flagging interest and 
lax attention. 

Results a test of instruction. — The second test of 
good instruction is our skill in handling the material 
of the lesson, and shaping the trend of thought and dis- 
cussion. Are the children interested in the right things? 
Are the central truths of the lesson being brought out 
and applied? Is the discussion centered on topics set 
for our consideration, or does it degenerate into aim- 
less talk on matters of personal or local interest which 
have no relation to the lesson? In short, does the 
recitation period yield the fruitful knowledge we had 
set as a goal for this lesson? Does it stimulate the 
attitudes and motives we had meant to reach? Does 
it lead to the applications in life and conduct which 
were intended? Does it get results? 

The four points of this lesson are of supreme im- 
portance in teaching religion. The aim must be clear, 
definite, and possible of attainment. The subject matter 
of instruction must be wisely selected as an instrument 
for reaching the aim set forth. The organization of this 
material must adapt it to the mind and needs of the 
child. The presentation of the lesson material in the 
recitation must be such that its full effect is brought 
to bear upon the mind and heart of those we teach. 

Each of these four points will be further elaborated 
in the chapters which follow. In fact, the remainder 
of the text is chiefly a working out and applying of 
these fundamental principles to the teaching of religion. 

i. To what extent would you say you have been 
directing your teaching toward a definite aim? Just how 
does the problem of this chapter relate itself to the pre- 
ceding chapter on the "Great Objective"? 



THE FOURFOLD FOUNDATION 57 

2. Do you think the majority of those who have come 
up through the church school possess as full and definite 
a knowledge of the Bible and the fundamentals of re- 
ligion as we have a right to expect? If not, where is 
the trouble and what the remedy? 

3 . Have you been consciously emphasizing the creation 
of right attitudes as one of the chief outcomes of your 
teaching? Do you judge that you are as successful in 
the developing of religious attitudes as in imparting 
information? If not, can you find a remedy? 

4. To what extent do you think your instruction is 
actually carrying over into the immediate life and con- 
duct of your class in their home, school, etc.? If not 
to so great an extent as you could wish, are you willing 
to make this one of the great aims of your teaching from 
this time on, seeking earnestly throughout this text and 
in other ways to learn how this may be done? 

5. Do you on the whole feel that the subject matter 
you are teaching your pupils is adapted to the aims you 
seek to reach in their lives? If not, how can you supple- 
ment and change to make it more effective? Have you 
a broad enough knowledge of such material yourself so 
that you can select material from other sources for them? 

6. To what extent do you definitely plan each lesson for 
the particular children you teach so as to make it most 
accessible to their interest and grasp? Do you plan each 
lesson to secure a psychological mode of approach? How 
do you know when you have a psychological approach? 

FOR FURTHER READING 

Betts, Class-Room Method and Management, Part I. 
Coe, A Social Theory of Religious Education, Part II. 
DuBois, The Point of Contact in Teaching. 



CHAPTER IV 
RELIGIOUS KNOWLEDGE OF MOST WORTH 

The child comes into the world devoid of all knowl- 
edge and understanding. His mind, though at the 
beginning a blank, is a potential seedbed in which we 
may plant what teachings we will. The babe born 
into our home to-day can with equal ease be made into 
a Christian, a Buddhist, or a Mohammedan. He 
brings with him the instinct to respond to the appeal 
religion makes to his life, but the kind and quality of 
his religion will depend largely on the religious atmos- 
phere he breathes and the religious ideas and concepts 
placed in his mind through instruction and training. 

What, then, shall we teach our children in religion? 
If fruitful knowledge is to be one of the chief aims of 
our teaching, what knowledge shall we call fruitful? 
What are the great foundations on which a Christian 
life must rest? Years ago Spencer wrote a brilliant 
essay on knowledge of most worth in the field of general 
education. What knowledge is of most worth in the 
field of religious education? For not all knowledge, as 
we have seen, is of equal value. Some religious knowl- 
edge is fruitful because it can be set at work to shape our 
attitudes and guide our acts; other religious knowledge 
is relatively fruitless because it finds no point of con- 
tact with experience. 

To answer our question we must therefore ask: 
"What knowledge will serve to guide the child's foot- 
steps aright from day to day as he passes through his 
childhood? What truths will even now, while he is still 

58 



KNOWLEDGE OF MOST WORTH 59 

a child, awaken his spiritual appreciation and touch the 
springs of his emotional response to the heavenly Father? 
What religious concepts, once developed, will lead the 
youth into a rich fullness of personal experience and 
develop in him the will and capacity to serve others? 
What religious knowledge will finally make most cer- 
tain a life of loyalty to the church and the great cause 
for which it stands?" When we can answer these 
questions we shall then be able to say what knowledge 
is of most worth in the religious training of our children. 

THE CHILD'S CONCEPT OF GOD 

The child must come to know about God, even as 
a little child. Long before he can understand about 
religion, he can learn about a heavenly Father. This 
does not imply that the child (or that we ourselves!) 
can know God in any full or complete way. Indeed, 
a God who could be known in his entirety by even the 
deepest and wisest finite mind would be no God at all. 
Yet everyone must give some meaning to God. Every- 
one does have some more or less definite idea, image, 
or mental picture of the God he thinks about, prays to, 
and worships. 

The child's idea of God develops gradually. — 
We need not be concerned that God does not mean 
the same to the child with his mental limitations that 
he means to us. Meaning comes only out of experience, 
and this will grow. The great thing is that the child's 
fundamental concept of God shall start right, that in 
so far as it goes it shall be essentially true, and that 
it shall be clear and definite enough to guide his actions. 
More than this we cannot ask for; less than this does 
not give the child a God real enough to be a vital fac- 
tor and an active force in his life. 



60 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

It is to be expected, then, that the child's earliest 
concepts of God will be faulty and incomplete, and 
that in many points they will later need correction. 
Probably most children first think of God as having 
human form and attributes; the idea of spirit is beyond 
their grasp. God is to them a kind of magnified and 
glorified Father after the type of their earthly father. 
This need not concern us if we make sure that the 
crude beginnings of the God-idea have no disturbing 
elements in them, and that as the concept grows it 
moves in the right direction. 

The harm from false concepts. — Mr. H. G. Wells 1 
bitterly complains against the wrong concept of God 
that was allowed to grow in his mind as a child. These 
are his words: "He and his hell were the nightmare 
of my childhood. ... I thought of him as a fantastic 
monster perpetually waiting to condemn and to strike 
me dead! . . . He was over me and about my silliness and 
forgetfulness as the sky and sea would be about a child 
drowning in mid-Atlantic." It was only as the child 
grew into youth, and was able to discard this false 
idea of God that he came to feel right toward him. 

The harm done a child by false and disturbing 
concepts of God is hard to estimate. A small boy 
recently came home from Sunday school and confided 
to his mother that he ' 'didn't think it was fair for God 
to spy on a fellow!" A sympathetic inquiry by the 
mother revealed the fact that the impression brought 
from the lesson hour was of God keeping a lookout 
for our wrongdoings and sins, and constantly making 
a record of them against us, as an unsympathetic teacher 
might in school. The beneficent and watchful over- 
sight and care of God had not entered into the concept. 

1 God the Invisible King, p, 44. 



KNOWLEDGE OF MOST WORTH 61 

It is clear that with this wrong understanding of God's 
relation to him the child's attitude and the response 
of his heart toward God could not be right. The lesson 
hour which left so false an impression of God in the 
child's mind did him lasting injury instead of good. 

How wrong concepts may arise. — Pierre Loti tells 
in his reminiscences of his own child-life how he went 
out into the back yard and threw stones at God because 
it had rained and spoiled the picnic day. In his teach- 
ing, God had been made responsible for the weather, 
and the boy had come to look upon prayer as a means 
of getting what he wanted from God. It took many 
years of experience to rid the child's mind of the last 
vestiges of these false ideas. The writer recalls a trouble- 
some idea of God that inadvertently secured lodgment 
in his own mind through the medium of a picture in 
his first geography. In the section on China was the 
representation of a horrid, malignant looking idol 
underneath which was printed the words, "A God." 
For many years the image of this picture was associated 
with the thought of God, and made it hard to respond 
to the concept of God's beauty, goodness, and kindness. 
Wrong concepts of God may leave positive antago- 
nisms which require years to overcome. A little girl 
of nearly four years had just lost her father. She did 
not understand the funeral and the flowers and the 
burial. She came to her mother in the evening and 
asked where her papa was. The stricken mother replied 
that "God had taken him." 

"But when is he coming back?" asked the child. 
The mother answered that he could not come back. 

'Not ever?" persisted the child. 

'Not ever," whispered the mother. 

'Won't God let him? ' ' asked the relentless questioner. 



"i 



<n 



62 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

The heart-broken mother hesitated for a word of 
wisdom, but finally answered, "No, God will not let 
him come back to us." 

Care and wisdom needed. — And in that moment 
the harm was done. The child had formed a wrong 
concept of God as one who would willfully take away 
her father and not let him return. She burst out in a 
fit of passion: "I don't like God! He takes my papa 
and keeps him away." 

That night she refused to say her prayer, and for 
weeks remained rebellious and unforgiving toward the 
God whom she accused of having robbed her of her 
father. How should the mother have answered her 
child's question? I cannot tell in just what words, 
but the words in which we answer the child's questions 
must be chosen with such infinite care and wisdom 
that bitterness shall not take the place which love 
toward God should occupy in the heart. 

Another typical difficulty is that children are often 
led to think of God as a distant God. A favorite Sunday 
school hymn sings of "God above the great blue sky." 
To many children God is "in heaven," and heaven 
is localized at an immeasurable distance. Hence the 
fact of God's nearness is wholly missed. Children come 
to think of God as seated on a great white throne, an 
aged, austere, and severe Person, more an object of 
fear than of love. And then we tell the children that 
they "must love God," forgetting that love never comes 
from a sense of duty or compulsion, but springs, when 
it appears, spontaneously from the heart because it 
is compelled by lovable traits and appealing qualities 
in the one to be loved! 

The concept of God which the child needs. — 
The concept of God which the child first needs, there- 



KNOWLEDGE OF MOST WORTH 63 

fore, is God as loving Father, expecting obedience and 
trust from his children; God as inviting Friend; God 
as friendly Protector; God ever near at hand; God who 
can understand and sympathize with children and 
enter into their joys and sorrows; God as Creator, in 
the sunshine and the flowers; but above all, God filling 
the heart with love and gladness. The concept which 
the child needs of Jesus is of his surpassing goodness, 
his unselfish courage, and his loving service. All re- 
ligious teaching which will lead to such concepts as 
these is grounding the child in knowledge that is rich 
and fruitful, for it is making God and Christ real to 
him. All teaching which leads to false concepts is an 
obstacle in the way of spiritual development. 

THE CHILD'S CONCEPT OF RELIGION 

Gradually throughout his training the child should 
be forming a clear concept of religion and the part it 
is to play in the life. This cannot come through any 
formal definition, nor through any set of precepts. 
It must be a growth, stimulated by instruction, guided 
by wise counsel, given depth of meaning through the 
lives of strong men and women who express the Christian 
ideal in their daily living. 

Matthew Arnold tells us that religion is "morality 
lit up by emotion. " We turn to God for our inspiration, 
for the quickening of our motives, for fellowship, com- 
munion and comfort; but it is when we face the duties 
and relationships of the day's work and its play that 
we prove how close we have been to God and what 
we have received from him. As there can be no religion 
without God, neither can there be religion without 
morality; that is, without righteous living. 

Connecting religion with life. — One of the chief aims 



64 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

in teaching the child religion should therefore be to 
ground him in the understanding that religion is life. 
Probably no greater defect exists in our religion to-day 
than our constant tendency to divorce it from life. 
There are many persons who undertake to divide their 
lives up into compartments, one for business, one for 
the relations of the home, one for social matters, one 
for recreation and amusement, and one for religion. 
They make the mistake of assuming that they can 
keep these sections of the life separate and distinct 
from each other, forgetting that life is a unity and that 
the quality of each of its aspects inevitably colors and 
gives tone to all the rest. 

The child should be saved the comfortable assumption 
so tragically prevalent that religion is chiefly a matter 
for Sundays; that it consists largely in belonging to the 
church and attending its services; that it finds its com- 
plete and most effective expression in the observance 
of certain rites and ceremonials; that we can serve God 
without serving our fellow men; that creeds are more 
important than deeds; that saying "Lord, Lord," can 
take the place of a ministry of service. 

Religion defined in noble living. — There is only one 
way to save the child from such crippling concepts as 
these: that is to hold up to him the challenge of life 
at its best and noblest, to show him the effects of religion 
at work. What are the qualities we most admire in 
others? What are the secrets of the influence, power, 
and success of the great men and women whose names 
rule the pages of history? What are the attributes 
that will draw people to us as friends and followers 
and give us power to lead them to better ways? What 
are the things that will yield the most satisfaction, 
and that are most worth while to seek and achieve as 



KNOWLEDGE OF MOST WORTH 65 

the outcome of our own lives? What is true success, 
and how shall we know when we have achieved it? 
Why does the Christ, living his brief, modest, and un- 
eventful life and dying an obscure and tragic death, stand 
out as the supreme model and example for men to pattern 
their lives by? 

These are questions that the child needs to have 
answered, not in formal statements, of course, but in 
terms that will reach his understanding and appre- 
ciation. These are truths that he needs to have lodged 
in his mind, so that they may stir his imagination, fire 
his ambition, and harden his will for endeavor. These 
are the goals that the child needs to have set before 
him as the measure of success in life, the pathways 
into which his feet should be directed. 

The qualities religion puts into the life. — What, 
then, are the things men live by? What are the great 
qualities which have ruled the finest lives the world 
has known? How does religion express itself in the 
run of the day's experience? What are some of the 
objective standards by which religion is to be measured 
in our own lives or in the lives of others, in the lives of 
children or in the lives of adults? What are the charac- 
terizing features in the life and personality of Jesus? 
What did he put first in practice as well as in precept? 

Joyousness. No word was oftener on the lips of 
Jesus than the word "joy," and the world has never 
seen such another apostle of joyousness. The life that 
lacks joy is flat for him who lives it, and exerts little 
appeal to others. 

Good will. The good will of Jesus embraces all manner 
and conditions of people. His magnanimity and gen- 
erosity under all conditions were one of the charms of 
his personality and one of the chief sources of his strength. 



66 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

Service. Jesus's life was, if possible, more wonderful 
than his death, and nothing in his life was more won- 
derful than his passion for serving others. The men and 
women whom the world has remembered and honored 
in all generations and among all peoples are the men 
and women who found their greatness in service. 

Loyalty. Steadfastness to the cause he had espoused 
led Jesus to the cross. Great characters do not ask 
what road is easy, but what way is right. Where duty 
leads, the strong do not falter nor fail, cost what it 
may. They see their task through to the end, though 
it mean that they die. 

Sympathy. Jesus always understood. His heart had 
eyes to see another's need. His love was as broad as 
the hunger of the human heart for comradeship. We 
are never so much our best selves as when self is for- 
gotten, and we enter into the joys or the sorrows of 
one who needs us. 

Purity. Sin has its price for all it gives us. We 
cannot stain our souls and find them white again. 
We later reap whatever now we sow. Jesus's life of 
righteousness, lived amid temptations such as we all 
meet, is a challenge to every man who would be the 
captain of his own soul. 

Sincerity. No man ever doubted that Jesus meant 
what he said. No man ever accused him of acting a 
part. His enemies, even, never found him misrepre- 
senting or speaking other than the truth. All truly 
fine characters can be trusted for utter sincerity of 
word, of purpose, and of deed. 

Courage. Jesus was never more sublime than under 
conditions that test men's courage. Did he face hostile 
mob and servile judge? did he find himself misunder- 
stood and deserted by those who had been his friends? 



KNOWLEDGE OF MOST WORTH 67 

must he bid his disciples a last farewell? did he see the 
shadow of the cross over his pathway? — yet he never 
faltered. His courage stood all tests. 

Vision. A distinguishing quality of the great is their 
power to put first things first. Jesus possessed a fine 
sense of values. He willingly sold all he had that he 
might buy the pearl of great price. His temptations 
to follow after lesser values left him unscathed, and 
he refused to command the stones to be made bread, 
or to do aught else that would turn him from his mission. 

God-Consciousness. Those who have most left their 
impress upon the world and the hearts of men have 
not worked through their own power alone. They have 
known how to link their lives to the infinite Source of 
power; the way has been open between their lives and 
God. Jesus never for a moment doubted that all the 
resources of God were at his command, hence he had 
but to reach out and they were his. 

It is evident, as before stated, that this functional 
definition of religion, this great program of living, can- 
not be thrust on the child all at once — cannot be thrust 
on him at all. But day after day and year after year 
throughout the period of his training the conviction 
should be taking shape in the child's mind that these 
are the real things of life, the truest measure of success- 
ful living, the highest goals for which men can strive. 
The definition of religion which he forms from his 
instruction should be broad enough to include these 
values and such others of similar kind as Christianity 
at its best demands. 

KNOWLEDGE OF THE BIBLE 

A knowledge of the essential parts of the Bible is 



68 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

indispensable to Christian culture. The Bible is the 
storehouse of spiritual wisdom of the ages, the match- 
less textbook of religion. Great men and women of all 
generations testify to its power as a source of inspira- 
tion and guidance. To be ignorant of its fundamental 
spiritual truths is to lack one of the chiefest instru- 
ments of religious growth and development. Not to 
know its teachings is to miss the strongest and best 
foundation that has ever been laid for fruitful and 
happy living. To lose a knowledge of the Bible out of 
our lives is to deprive ourselves of the ethical and re- 
ligious help needed to redeem society and bring the 
individual to his rightful destiny. Yet this generation 
is confronted by a widespread and universal ignorance 
of the Bible, even among the adherents of the churches. 
Making the Bible useful to the child. — The child 
cannot be taught all of the Bible as a child. Indeed, 
parts of it dealing with the ideals and practices of 
peoples and times whose primitive standards were far 
below those of our own times are wholly unsuited to 
the mind of childhood, and should be left until ma- 
turity has given the mental perspective by which to 
interpret them. Other parts of the Bible prove dry and 
uninteresting to children, and are of no immediate 
spiritual significance to them. Still other parts, which 
later will be full of precious meaning, are beyond the 
grasp or need of the child in his early years and should 
be left for a later period. But with all these subtrac- 
tions there still remains a rich storehouse of biblical 
material suited for all ages from earliest childhood to 
maturity. This material should be assembled and 
arranged in a children's Bible. This abridged Bible 
should then be made a part of the mental and spiritual 
possession of every child. 



KNOWLEDGE OF MOST WORTH 69 

The knowledge of the Bible which will be of most 
worth to the child must be a functioning knowledge; 
a knowledge that can and will be put at work in the 
child's thought, helping him form his judgments of 
right and wrong and arrive at a true sense of moral 
values; a knowledge that stirs the soul's response to 
the appeal God makes to the life; a knowledge that 
daily serves as a guide to action amid the perplexities 
and temptations that are met; a knowledge that lives 
and grows as the years pass by, constantly revealing 
deeper meanings and more significant truths. 

The test of useful knowledge. — This is all to say 
that the knowledge of the Bible given the child must 
in no sense be a merely formal knowledge, a knowledge 
of so many curious or even interesting facts separated 
from their vital meaning and application. It must not 
consist of truths which for the most part do not influence 
thought and action. Not how many facts are lodged 
in the mind, nor how many have passed through the 
mind and been forgotten, but how many truths are 
daily being built into character — this measures the 
value of the knowledge we teach the child from the 
Bible. 

KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THE CHURCH 

The church represents religion organized. Because 
of our social impulses we need to worship together in 
groups. Many religious activities, such as education, 
evangelism, missionary enterprises, and reforms, can be 
successfully carried out only by joint action; hence we 
have the church, a means of religious culture, and the 
instrument of religious service. Few there are who, out- 
side the church, maintain their own religious experience 
or carry the ministry of religious service to others. 



70 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

A knowledge of the church is therefore an essential 
part of the child's religious education. 

What the child needs to know about the church. 
— This does not mean that the child needs to know the 
technical and detailed history of the Christian Church; 
this may come later. Nor does it mean that the child 
needs to know the different theological controversies 
through which the church has passed and the creeds 
that have resulted; this also may come later. What 
the child needs first to know is that the church is the 
instrument of religion, the home of religious people; 
that the Christian Church began with the followers 
of Jesus, and that it has existed ever since; that it has 
done and is doing much good in the world; that the 
best and noblest men and women of each generation 
work with and through the church; that the church 
is worthy of our deepest love and appreciation, and 
that it should command our fullest loyalty and 
support. 

Besides this rather general knowledge of the church, 
the child should know the organization and workings 
of the present-day church. He should come to know 
as much of its program, plans, and ideals as his age 
and understanding will permit. 

Even the younger children are able to understand 
and sympathize with the missionary work of the church, 
both in home and in foreign lands. Missionary instruc- 
tion offers a valuable opportunity to quicken the re- 
ligious imagination and broaden the social interests. 
Lessons showing the church at work in missionary fields 
should therefore be freely brought to the child. 

Knowledge of the church's achievements. — The 
part the church has taken and is to-day taking in ad- 
vancing the cause of education will appeal to the child's 



KNOWLEDGE OF MOST WORTH 71 

admiration and respect. A knowledge of its philan- 
thropies will make a good foundation for the later 
loyalties to be developed toward the church as an 
institution. The important influence of the church in 
furthering moral reforms and social progress is well 
within the appreciation of adolescents, and should be 
brought to their recognition. 

Especially should children know the activities of 
their own local church; they should learn of its different 
organizations and of the work each is doing; they should 
know its financial program — where the money comes 
from and the uses to which it is put; they should know 
its plans ahead in so far as their participation can be 
used in carrying out its activities. All these lines of 
information are necessary to the child in order that 
his interest and loyalty may have an intelligent and 
enduring basis. 

Knowledge of one's own church. — The first knowl- 
edge of the church as an institution given the child 
should be of the church as a whole, and should have no 
denominational bias. We should first aim to make 
out of our children Christians, and only later to make 
out of them Methodists, Presbyterians, Baptists, or 
Congregationalists. 

There comes a time, however, when the child should 
become informed concerning his own particular church 
or denomination. He should learn of its history, its 
achievements, its creeds, its plan of organization and 
polity. This is not with the purpose of cultivating a 
narrow sectarianism, but in the interests of a self- 
respecting intelligence concerning the particular branch 
of the church which is one's spiritual home. That the 
great mass of our people to-day possess any reasonable 
fund of knowledge about the Christian Church or their 



72 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

own denomination may well be doubted. This is a serious 
fault in religious education. 

KNOWLEDGE OF RELIGIOUS £USIC AND ART 

Not all of the chili's religious impressions come 
through direct instruction in the facts and precepts 
of religion. Religious feeling and comprehension of 
the deeper meanings and values often best spring from 
their expression in music and art. 

Music essential to religion. — No other form of ex- 
pression can take the place of music in creating a spirit 
of reverence and devotion, or in inspiring religious 
feeling. So closely is music interwoven with religion 
that no small part of the world's greatest musical master- 
pieces have a religious motive as their theme. Even 
among primitive peoples music is an important feature 
of religious ceremonials. The Christian Church has a 
large and growing body of inspiring hymnology. 

The child needs to be led into a knowledge of re- 
ligious music. He needs this knowledge as a stimulus 
and a means of expression for his own spiritual life. 
But he also needs it in order to take part in the exer- 
cises of his church and its organizations. He needs it 
in order to enjoy music and do his part in producing 
it in the home and the school. This means that chil- 
dren should come to know the hymnology of the church; 
they should know the words and the music of such 
worthy and inspiring hymns as are adapted to their 
age and understanding. They should finally, during 
the course of their development to adulthood, learn 
to know and enjoy the great religious oratorios and 
other forms of musical expression. 

The place of art in religion.— Art, like music, owes 
much of its finest form and development to religion. 



KNOWLEDGE OF MOST WORTH 73 

Religious hope,- aspiration, and devotion have always 
sought expression in pictorial or plastic art and in 
noble architecture. We owe it to our children to put 
them in possession of this rich spiritual heritage. They 
should know and love the great masterpieces of paint- 
ing dealing with religious themes. They should not 
only have these as a part of their instruction in the 
church school classes, but they should also have them 
in their homes and in their schools, and see them in 
public art galleries and in other public buildings suit- 
able for their display. 

Wherever possible the church building should in its 
architecture express in a worthy way the religious ideals 
of its members. It should first of all be adapted to 
the uses expected of it. It should be beautiful in con- 
ception and execution, and should allow no unlovely 
or unworthy elements to enter into its structure. 

We should teach our children something of the wonder 
and beauty of religious architecture as represented in 
the great cathedrals and churches of all lands, and 
lead them to see in these creations the desire and attempt 
of great souls to express their appreciation for God's 
goodness to men. 

1 . It will help you to understand the child's idea of God 
if you will think back to your own childhood and answer 
the following questions: Just who and what was God to 
you? Was he near by or far off? When you prayed, to 
what kind of a Being was the prayer addressed ? Did Jesus 
seem more near and friendly to you than God ? What were 
(or are) the most outstanding attributes of God's nature 
to you? Did you ever have any disturbing ideas about 
God? 

2. Now, suppose you attempt to answer these same 
questions about the children in your class. You will have 



74 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

to remember that the child may not be able to explain just 
what God seems to him — perhaps you can hardly do this 
yourself. Further, a child may often have some notion 
that what he feels is queer or would not be well received, 
and hence he will not fully express it to others. 

3. Just what does religion seem to you to be? Is it 
largely a way of living or a set of conventions and re- 
straints? How did religion appeal to you in your child- 
hood? Are you able to tell how the children of your class 
understand religion? What definite help are you giving 
them toward broadening and enriching their concept of re- 
ligion ? Are you leading them to see that religion is a way 
of living the day's life ? 

4. To what extent do you feel that you really know the 
Bible ? Could you give a sketch of twenty of its leading 
characters, describing the strengths and weaknesses of 
character of each? Could you describe the great biblical 
events, and draw the lessons they teach? Could you com- 
pare and characterize the Hebrew religion and the religion 
of Jesus ? Are the pupils in your class going to be able from 
the work of the church school to answer favorably these 
and similar questions ? 

5. We expect good citizens to know something of the 
history of their country and their commonwealth. Is it too 
much to ask members of the Christian Church to have the 
same information about the church? Could you pass a 
fair examination on the history and achievements of the 
church ? Of your own particular church ? Are the children 
of your church school growing in this knowledge? The 
children of your class? 

6. To what extent do the children of your class know the 
hymns of the church? Is care taken to give them such 
hymns as are suited to their age? Are worthy hymns 
taught them, or the silly rimes found in many church song 
books? (This does not mean that children should be 
taught music beyond their comprehension; there is much 
good music suited to different ages.) Are your children 



KNOWLEDGE OF MOST WORTH 75 

having an opportunity to know the great religious pic- 
tures ? Religious architecture ? (Here also the work must 
be adapted to the age.) 

FOR FURTHER READING 

Coe, Education in Religion and Morals. 
Brown, The Modern Man's Religion, chapter on "The 
Use of the Bible." 

Fosdick, The Manhood of the Master. 
Weld and Conant, Songs for Little People. 
Bailey, The Gospel in Art. 



CHAPTER V 
RELIGIOUS ATTITUDES TO BE CULTIVATED 

Life never stands still; especially does the life of 
the child never stand still. It is always advancing, 
changing, reconstructing. Starting with an unripe 
brain, and with no fund of knowledge or expression, 
the child in the first few years of his life makes aston- 
ishing progress. By the time he is three years old he 
has learned to understand and speak a difficult language. 
He knows the names and uses of hundreds of objects 
about him. He has acquaintance with a considerable 
number of people, and has learned to adapt himself 
to their ways. He has gained much information about 
every phase of his environment which directly touches 
his life — his mastery of knowledge has grown apace, 
without rest or pause. 

Nor does the development of what we have called 
attitudes lag behind. Parallel with growth in the child's 
knowledge, his interests are taking root; his ideals are 
shaping; his standards are developing; his enthusiasms 
are kindling; his loyalties are being grounded. These 
changes go on whether we will or not — just because 
life and growth can not be stopped. The great ques- 
tion that confronts teacher and parent is whether 
through guidance, that is through education, we shall 
be able to say what attitudes shall arise and what motives 
shall come to rule, rather than to leave this all-im- 
portant matter to chance or to influence hostile to the 
child's welfare. 

The teacher of religion, like all other teachers, must 

76 



ATTITUDES TO BE CULTIVATED 77 

meet two distinct though related problems in the cul- 
tivating of attitudes. These are: 

1. The creation of an immediate or direct set of atti- 
tudes toward the school and its work. This is needed to 
motivate effort and insure right impressions. 

2. The development of a far-reaching set of attitudes 
that will carry out from the classroom into the present 
and future life of the pupil. This is needed as a guide 
and stimulus to spiritual growth, and as a foundation 
for character. 

ATTITUDES TOWARD THE SCHOOL AND ITS WORK 

The older view of education sought to drive the 
child to effort and secure results through pain and com- 
pulsion. It was believed that the pathway to learning 
must of necessity be dreary and strewn with hard- 
ships, if, indeed, not freely watered with the tears of 
childhood. 

Now we know better. A knowledge of child psy- 
chology and a more sympathetic insight into child 
nature have shown us that instead of external com- 
pulsion we must get hold of the inner springs of action. 
No mind can exert its full power unless the driving 
force comes from within. The capacities implanted 
in the child at his birth do not reach full fruition except 
when freely and gladly used because their use is a 
pleasure and satisfaction. If worthy results are to be 
secured, the whole self must be called into action under 
the stimulus of willingness, desire, and complete assent 
of the inner self to the tasks imposed. There must 
be no lagging, nor holding back, nor partial use of 
powers. 

Religious education is, therefore, not simply a question 



78 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

of getting our children into the church schools. That 
is easy. Parents who themselves do not attend feel 
that they have more fully done their duty by their 
children if they send them to the Sunday school. After 
securing the attendance of the children the great ques- 
tion still remains — that of the response, their attitude 
toward the activities of the school, the completeness 
with which they give themselves to its work. 

A friend who is a State inspector of public schools 
tells me that the first thing he looks for when he visits 
a school is the school spirit, the attitude of the pupils 
toward their teachers and the work of the school. If 
this is good, there is a foundation upon which to build 
fruitful work; if the spirit is bad, there is no possi- 
bility that the work of the school can be up to standard. 
For it is out of the schoolroom spirit, the classroom 
attitudes, that the effort necessary to growth and 
achievement must come. 

The spirit of the classroom. — Do the children enjoy 
the lesson hour? The first of the motivating condi- 
tions to seek for our classroom is a prevailing attitude 
of happiness, good cheer, enjoyment. These are the 
natural attributes and attitudes of childhood. Un- 
happiness is an abnormal state for the child. The 
child's nature unfolds and his mind expands normally 
only when in an atmosphere of sympathy, kindness, 
and good feeling. Our pupils must enjoy what they 
are doing, if they are to give themselves whole-heartedly 
to it. If loyalty to the school and the church is to 
result, they must not feel that the Sunday school hour 
is a drag and a bore. If such is the case, they cannot 
be expected to carry away lasting impressions for good. 
They must not look upon attendance as an imposition, 
nor wait with eager impatience for the closing gong. 



ATTITUDES TO BE CULTIVATED 79 

While loyalty should be permeated by a sense of duty 
and obligation, and even of self-sacrifice, it cannot 
rest on this alone. Most children and youth are loyal 
to their homes; but this loyalty rests chiefly on a senti- 
ment formed from day to day and year to year out 
of the satisfying experiences connected with the love, 
care, protection, and associations of the home. Let 
these happy, satisfying home experiences be lacking, 
and loyalty to the home fails or loses its fine quality. 

In similar way, if the experiences in the Sunday 
school and the church continuously yield satisfaction, 
enjoyment, and good feeling, the child's loyalty and 
devotion are assured; if, on the other hand, these ex- 
periences come to be associated with dislike, reluctance, 
and aversion, loyalty is in danger of breaking under 
the strain. 

The response of interest. — Are the children inter- 
ested? While, as we have seen, the atmosphere or spirit 
of the classroom supplies the condition necessary to 
successful work, interest supplies the motive force. 
For interest is the mainspring of action. A child may 
politely listen, or from a sense of courtesy or good will 
sit quietly passive and not disturb others, but this does 
not meet the requirement. His thought, interest, and 
enthusiasm must be centered on the matter in hand. 
He must withdraw his attention from all wandering 
thoughts, passing fancies, distracting surroundings, and 
concentrate upon the lesson itself. There is no sub- 
stitute for this. There is no possibility of making 
lasting impressions on a mind with its energies dispersed 
through lack of attention. And there is no possibility 
of securing fruitful attention without interest. 

Interest therefore becomes a primary consideration in 
our teaching of religion. The teacher must constantly 



80 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

ask himself: "What is the state of my pupils' interest? 
How completely am I commanding their enthusiasm? 
Suppose I were to grade them on a scale with com- 
plete-indifference as the interest zero, and with the 
'exploding- point '-oj ^-enthusiasm as the highest interest 
mark, where would the score mark of my class stand? 
And if I cannot reasonably hope to keep my class at 
the high-water mark of interest at all times, what 
shall I call an attainable standard? If one hundred 
per cent is to represent the supreme achievement of 
interest, shall I be satisfied with fifty per cent, with 
twenty-five per cent, or with complete indifference? 
If the minds of my pupils can receive and retain lasting 
impressions only under the stimulus of the higher 
range of interest, in how far am I now making lasting 
impressions on my class? In short, is the interest attitude 
of my class as good as I can make it?" 

The sense of victory. — Is there a feeling of confidence 
and mastery? Do the children understand what they 
are asked to learn? Without this the attitude toward 
the class hour cannot be good, for the mind is always 
ill at ease when forced to work upon matter it cannot 
grasp nor assimilate. Nor is it possible to secure full 
effort without a reasonable degree of mastery. The 
feeling of confidence and assurance that comes from 
successful achievement increases the amount of power 
available. The victorious army or the winning foot- 
ball team is always more formidable than the same 
organization when oppressed and disheartened by con- 
tinued defeat. 

If the task is interesting, children do not ask that 
it shall be easy. Once catch their enthusiasm and they 
will exert their powers to the full, and take joy in the 
effort. But the effort must be accompanied by a sense 



ATTITUDES TO BE CULTIVATED 81 

of victory and achievement. There must always be 
immediately ahead the possibility of winning over 
the difficulties of their lessons. Except in rare moments 
of emotional exaltation the most heroic of us are not 
capable of hurling our best strength against obstacles 
upon whose resistance we make no impression. And 
the child possesses almost none of this quality. With- 
out a measurable degree of success in what he attempts 
to learn his morale suffers, enthusiasm fails, and dis- 
couragement creeps in to sap his powers. 

Kept in the presence of mental tasks he cannot 
master nor understand, the child will soon lose interest 
and anticipation in his work. Without mastery intel- 
lectual defeat comes to be accepted and expected, and 
the child forms the fatal habit of submission and giving 
up. Because he expects defeat from *the lesson before 
him, the learner is already defeated; because he has 
not learned to look for victory in his study, he will 
never find it. 

Preventing the habit of defeat. — This is all to say 
that in teaching the child religion we must not con- 
stantly confront him with matter that is beyond his 
grasp and understanding. That we are doing this in 
some of our lesson systems there can be no doubt. The 
result is seen in the child's hazy and indefinite ideas 
about religion; in a later astonishing lack of interest 
in the problems of religion on the part of adults; in the 
child's unwillingness to undertake the study of his 
lessons for the Sunday school; in the fact that to many 
children the Sunday school lesson hour is a task and 
a bore; and in the fact that the Sunday school does not 
in a large degree continue to hold the loyalty of its 
members after they have reached the age of deciding 
for themselves whether they will attend. Fundamental 



82 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

to all successful classroom results with children are en- 
joyment, interest, and mastery. How these are to be 
secured will be developed further as the text proceeds. 

ATTITUDES THAT CARRY INTO LIFE BEYOND 
THE SCHOOL 

The great problem of every teacher is to make sure 
that the effects of his instruction reach beyond the class- 
room. While the immediate attitudes of the classroom 
are the first great care, they are but the beginning. 
Growing out of the work of the church school must 
be a more permanent set of attitudes that underlie 
life itself, give foundation to character, and in large 
degree determine the trend and outcome of achieve- 
ment. The cultivation of moral and religious attitudes 
is probably the most important aim for the Sunday school. 
As already explained, the word "attitudes" is used to 
cover a considerable number of qualities and attributes. 

A continuing interest in the Bible and religion. — 
On the whole, people do not concern themselves 
about what they are not interested in. They do not 
read the books, study the pictures, go to hear the speak- 
ers, or busy themselves with problems to which their 
interest does not directly and immediately lead them. 
A fine sense of duty and obligation is all very well, 
but it never can take the place of interest as a dynamic 
force in life. 

The number of Bibles sold every year would lead 
one to suppose that our people are great students of 
the Scriptures. Yet the almost Uiiiversal ignorance 
of the Bible proves that it is one thing to own a Bible, 
and quite another thing to read it. We may buy the 
Bible because other people own Bibles, because we 
believe in its principles, and because it seems altogether 



ATTITUDES TO BE CULTIVATED 83 

desirable to have the Bible among our collection of 
books. But the extent to which we read the Bible 
depends on our interest in it and the truths with which 
it deals. 

Nor should we forget that, while the United States 
is rightly counted as one of the great Christian nations, 
only about two out of five of our people are members 
of Christian churches. It is true that this proportion 
would be considerably increased if all churches ad- 
mitted the younger children to membership; but even 
making allowance for this fact, it is evident that a 
great task still confronts the church in interesting our 
own millions in religion in such a way that they shall 
take part in its organized activities. 

Let each teacher of religion therefore ask himself: 
"To what extent am I grounding in my pupils a per- 
manent and continuing interest in the Bible and in the 
Christian religion? Growing out of lessons I teach 
these children are they coming to like the Bible? will 
they want to know more about it? will they turn to it 
naturally as a matter of course because they have found 
it interesting and helpful? will they care enough for it 
through the years to search for its deeper meanings 
and for its hidden beauties? and because of this will 
they build the strength and inspiration of the Bible 
increasingly into their lives?" 

And, further: "Are my pupils developing a growing 
interest in religion? Do they increasingly find it attrac- 
tive and inspiring, or is religion to them chiefly a set 
of restraints and prohibitions? Do they look upon 
religion as a means to a happier and fuller life, or as a 
limitation and check upon life. Is religion being re- 
vealed to them as the pearl of great price, or does it 
possess but little value in their standard of what is 



84 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

worth while?" These questions are of supreme signifi- 
cance, for in their right answers are the very issues 
of spiritual life for those we teach. 

Spiritual responsiveness. — The teacher must accept 
responsibility for the spiritual growth as well as the 
intellectual training of his pupils. There is no escape 
from this. We must be satisfied with nothing less than 
a constantly increasing consciousness of God's presence 
and reality in the lives of those we teach. 

As the child's knowledge grows and his concept of 
God develops, this should naturally and inevitably 
lead to an increasing warmth of attitude toward God 
and a tendency to turn to him constantly for guidance, 
strength, comradeship, and forgiveness. Indeed, the 
cultivation of this trend of the life toward God is the 
supreme aim in our religious leadership of children. 
Without this result, whatever may have been the facts 
learned or the knowledge gleaned, there has been no 
worthy progress made in spiritual growth and develop- 
ment. 

The evolution of spiritual responsiveness. — The 
realization of this new spiritual consciousness in the 
child's life may not involve any special nor abrupt 
upheaval. If the child is wisely led, and if he develops 
normally in his religion, it almost certainly will not. 
Countless thousands of those who are living lives very 
full of spiritual values have come into the rich con- 
sciousness of divine relationship so gradually that the 
separate steps cannot be distinguished. " First the 
blade, then the ear, and then the full grain in the ear" 
is the natural law of spiritual growth. 

The bearing of this truth upon our teaching is that 
we must seek for the unfolding of the child's spiritual 
nature and for the turning of his thought and affec- 



ATTITUDES TO BE CULTIVATED 85 

tions toward God from the first. We must not point 
to some distant day ahead when the child will " accept 
Jesus" or become "a child of God." We must our- 
selves think of the child, and lead the child to think 
of himself, as a member of God's family. 

This does not mean that the child, as he grows from 
childhood into youth and adulthood, will not need to 
make a personal and definite decision to give God and 
the Christ first place in his life; he will need to do this 
not once, but many times. It only means that from 
his earliest years the child is to be made to feel that he 
belongs to God, and should turn to him as Father and 
Friend. Day by day and week by week the child should 
be growing more vitally conscious of God's place in 
his life, and more responsive to this relationship. Only 
by this steady and continuous process of growth will 
the spiritual nature take on the depth and quality 
which the Christian ideal sets for its attainment. 

Ideals and ambitions. — In order that religion may 
be a helpful reality to the child it must extend to his 
developing ideals and ambitions. For even children 
have ideals and ambitions, however crude they may 
be, or however much they may lack the serious 
and practical nature they later take on. Probably 
no child reaches his teens without having many times 
secretly determined that he would do this or become 
that, which he has admired in some hero of his own 
choosing from actual acquaintance or from books or 
stories. There is no normal child but who has his 
own notions of greatness and importance, of success 
and fame, and who wishes and longs for certain things 
ahead upon which he has set his heart, and which he 
purposes to attain. The things that he thus values 
are his ideals^ goals to be reached. Ideals are, there- 



86 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

fore, guides to action and effort, something to be striven 
after and sacrificed for. They are the things most worth 
while, for which we can afford to forego other things 
of lesser value. It was the force of a great ideal which 
led Paul to say, "This one thing I do"; and to the 
attainment of that ideal he gave all his purpose and 
effort. 

To form true ideals requires a trained sense of values; 
one must develop a power of spiritual perspective, and 
be able to see things in their true proportions. He 
must know what things rightly come first if he is to 
"put first things first." He must have some training 
in recognizing the value of "pearls" if he is to see that 
it is a good exchange to "sell all that he has" in order 
to "buy the pearl of great price." 

This all suggests that one of the responsibilities rest- 
ing upon us as teachers of religion is to guide the child 
in the forming of his ideals. We must help him form 
his notion of what is worthy and admirable in charac- 
ter. We must see that he develops high standards of 
truth, honesty, obedience, and the other moral virtues 
which He at the foundation of all vital religion. We 
must make certain that his ideals of success and achieve- 
ment include a large measure of service to his fellows. 
We must ground him in right personal ideals and stand- 
ards of purity and clean living. We must make him 
feel a deep sense of responsibility for the full develop- 
ment and fruitful use of his own powers and abilities. 
In short, we must with all the wisdom and devotion 
we possess bring him to accept the life of Jesus as the 
ideal and pattern for his own life. 

Fine appreciations. — What one admires is an index 
to his character. More than this, the quality and tone 
of one's admirations finally build themselves into his 



ATTITUDES TO BE CULTIVATED 87 

nature and become a part of his very being. Life is 
infinitely enriched and refined by responding to the 
beauty, the goodness, and the gladness to be found 
around us. In Hawthorne's story of The Great Stone 
Face, the boy Ernest dwelt upon and admired the 
character revealed in the benignant lines of the great 
face outlined by the hand of the Creator on the moun- 
tainside until the fine qualities which the young boy 
daily idealized had grown into his own life, and Ernest 
himself had become the "wise man" whose coming 
had long been awaited by his people. 

It is not enough therefore to learn the facts about 
the lives of the great men and women of the Bible or 
of other times. The story of their lives must be pre- 
sented in such a way that admiration is compelled from 
the learner: for only the qualities the child appre- 
ciates and admires are finally built into his own ideal. 
It is not enough that the child shall be taught that 
God created the world and all that is therein; he must 
also be brought to appreciate and admire the won- 
ders and beauties of nature as an evidence of God's 
wisdom, power, and goodness. It is not enough that 
our pupils shall come to know the chief events in the life 
of Jesus and the outline of his teachings; they must 
also find themselves lost in admiration of the match- 
less qualities of his great personality. 

And so also with music, art, architecture, with the 
fine in human life and conduct, or with great and noble 
deeds. Inherent in them all are spiritual stimulus and 
food for the young life, manna upon which the growing 
soul should feed. But here again the law holds: in 
order to assimilate them to his life the child must appre- 
ciate, enjoy, admire. To bring this about is one part 
of our task as teacher. 



88 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

Worthy loyalties and devotions. — Every worthy 
character must have in it a certain power of resistance, 
a quality that makes it able to withstand hardship 
for the sake of an ideal or a cause. It is easy enough 
to be heroic when it costs nothing of effort or sacrifice. 
There is no trouble in securing supporters for a cause 
that is popular, or workers when the work called for 
is interesting and attractive. We are all willing to 
stand for the right if to stand is agreeable and exhil- 
arating, and does not bring us too much of unpleasant- 
ness, pain, or suffering. 

But life at its best and noblest does involve some 
hardship. Much that is best in human experience has 
come to us through hardship, toil, and suffering cheer- 
fully endured by heroic souls who counted their own 
lives as naught so that the cause to which they gave 
themselves might win. The comforts, freedom, and 
opportunities we enjoy some one paid for, bought with 
endless effort and sacrifice. Our very religion, the 
symbol of life, gladness, and salvation, has as its back- 
ground tragedy, suffering, death, the cross. 

The quality that makes us willing to endure and re- 
sist for the sake of a cause or an ideal we call loyalty. 
The high value set upon it is seen in the fact that loyalty 
is the first test of citizenship required; it is a quality 
admired and praised among all peoples in all relations 
of life; it is the quality we demand and prize in our 
friends and associates. On the other hand, disloyalty 
to country, friends, or trust is universally looked upon 
as despicable, and punished with contempt, scorn, and 
hatred. 

The appeal to the heroic. — One of the ends of re- 
ligious teaching is to cultivate in our youth the spirit 
of loyalty to worthy ideals and causes. Loyalty rests 



ATTITUDES TO BE CULTIVATED 89 

on a stratum of heroism, which is to be found deep down 
in every normal human being. We must stimulate 
and appeal to the heroic in the child's nature. We 
must make him see that the strong and fine men and 
women are willing to meet much that is hard and dis- 
agreeable, so that they may be loyal to their task. We 
must make him realize that the greatest and most 
worthy thing one can do is to " endure hardship" for 
a cause; that to be willing to suffer for an ideal is a 
mark of strength and courage; and that "having done 
all to stand" is often the best test of character. 

Nor must the thought of loyalty be presented to 
the child only in the abstract. Concrete examples are 
worth much general explanation and laudation. The 
loyalties of the great characters of biblical and other 
times can be made the source of great inspiration; the 
supreme loyalty of Jesus to his mission will exert a 
powerful appeal. But loyalty must be made imme- 
diate, definite and concrete to the child in his own 
life; he must not simply admire it afar off. Loyalty 
must be to him not something to learn about and praise 
in others, but something he can make use of himself 
each day without waiting to grow up or become famous. 
So we will teach the child the loyalties due parents 
and the home; loyalties to friends and comrades; loyal- 
ties to school, community, and country; loyalties to 
Sunday school, church, and the cause of religion; loy- 
alties to self; loyalties to duty wherever found; and, 
above all, loyalties to the Christ and his ideals. 

1. Do your pupils enjoy the church school, and like to 
come ? Do they enjoy the lesson hour ? By what means do 
you tell ? Is the spirit of the class good toward the school 
and toward the class? How do you judge this? 

2. Do your pupils come to the lesson hour full of ex- 



go HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

pectancy? Or is there an indifference and lack of interest 
with which you have to contend ? If the class fails in some 
degree to manifest expectancy and interest, where do you 
judge the trouble to lie? What is the remedy? 

3 . To what degree do you think your pupils are compre- 
hending and mastering what you are teaching them ? How 
does their mastery compare with that secured in the public 
schools? Have you plans for making their mastery more 
complete? 

4. Do you judge that your pupils are developing such an 
attitude toward the Bible that their interest will carry on 
beyond the time they are in your class ? Do you think they 
have an increasing interest in religion? Are you making 
these questions one of the problems of your teaching? 

5. Are your pupils developing through the work you are 
doing a growing consciousness of God in their lives? Do 
they count themselves as children of God? Just what do 
you believe is the status of your children spiritually ? Do 
they need conservation or conversion? What difference 
will your answer make in your teaching? 

6. To what degree are your pupils loyal to the church 
school? To their particular class? To the church? What 
are the tests of loyalty ? Do they come regularly ? Do they 
seek to promote the interests of the class and the school ? 
Do they do their part? What can be done to increase 
loyalty? 

FOR FURTHER READING 

Wilber, A Child's Religion. 
Bushnell, Christian Nurture (Revised Ed.). 
Betts, The Mind and Its Education, chapter on "In- 
terest." 

Fisk, Boy Life and Self -Government. 



CHAPTER VI 

CONNECTING RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION 
WITH LIFE AND CONDUCT 

We have now come to the third of the great trio of 
aims in religious education — right living. This, of course, 
is the aim to which the gathering of religious knowledge 
and the setting up of religious attitudes are but sec- 
ondary; or, rather, fruitful religious knowledge, and 
right religious attitudes are the means by which to 
lead to skill in right living as the end. 

In the last analysis the child does not come to us 
that he may learn this or that set of facts, nor that 
he may develop such and such a group of feelings, but 
that through these he may live better. The final test 
of our teaching, therefore, is just this: Because of our 
instruction, does the child live differently here and 
now, as a child, in all his multiform relations in the 
home, the school, the church, the community, and in 
his own personal life? Are the lessons we teach trans- 
lated continuously into better conduct, finer acts, and 
stronger character as shown in the daily run of the 
learner's experience? 

It is true that the full fruits of our teaching and of 
the child's learning must wait for time and experience 
to bring the individual to fuller development. But 
it is also true that it is impossible for the child to lay 
up a store of unused knowledge and have it remain 
against a later time of need in a distant future. The 
only knowledge that forms a vital part of our equip- 
ment is knowledge that is in active service, guiding 

91 



92 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

our thought and decisions from day to day. Unused 
knowledge quickly vanishes away, leaving little more 
permanent impression on the life than that left on 
the wave when we plunge our hand into the water 
and take it out again. In similar way the interests, 
ideals, and emotions which are aroused without at the 
same time affording a natural outlet for expression in 
deeds and conduct soon fade away without having 
fulfilled the purpose for which they exist. The great 
thing in religious education is to find immediate and 
natural outlet in expression, a way for the child to use 
what he learns; to get the child to do those things pointed 
out by the lessons we teach him. 

Religion drawing closer to life. — This is the only 
method of religious education that will meet the re- 
quirements of these times upon the Christian religion. 
The unmistakable trend of modern Christianity is to 
connect religion more closely and vitally with life itself 
— to make it a mode of living in a deeper sense than 
has obtained since the days of Christ upon earth. This 
is a very hopeful sign, for it accords completely with 
the spirit and message of Jesus. When he said, "By 
their fruit ye shall know them," what did he mean 
but that the quality and value of a man's religion is 
to be known by its outcome in deeds and action? When 
he said, "Not everyone that saith, Lord! Lord! but 
he that doeth . . ."; and again, "He that heareth these 
sayings of mine and doeth them . . . ," was he not again 
emphasizing the great truth that one's religion is tested 
only by the extent to which it is tied up with his daily 
living? 

The teacher will, therefore, say to himself, The 
religious knowledge I am putting into the minds of 
my pupils is of supreme importance — if it makes them 



LIFE AND CONDUCT 93 

live better and act more nobly; the religious attitudes 
and emotions I am cultivating in my class are full of 
value and significance — if they cause their possessors 
to live more broadly, sympathetically, usefully, and 
happily. The true teacher will then add, And it 
is my task to see that this result follows without fail I 

RELIGIOUS HABITS AS AN AIM 

Indirectly all this is to say that our first care in 
teaching the young child religion should be to lead 
him to form religious habits. For our lives are controlled 
by a great network of habits which come to us as the 
result of acts often repeated, until they have become 
as second nature. There are many things about the 
child's religion that should become second nature; that 
is, should become habit — and which are not certain 
and secure until they have grown into habits. For 
example, it is wholly desirable to have the habit of 
attending church, of personal devotions, and of re- 
sisting temptation, so well fixed that the acts required 
for each take care of themselves with a minimum of 
struggle and decision each time the occasion arises. 
Not only will this method require less strain and com- 
pulsion on our part, but it will result in more uniform 
churchgoing, attention to devotions, and the over- 
coming of temptation. 

The age for habit forming. — The principle, then, is 
simple and clear. At the beginning of the child's con- 
tact with the church school he cannot grasp the broader 
and deeper meanings of religion; but he can during 
this period be led into the doing of right acts and deeds, 
and thus have his religious habits started. At a time 
when his brain is yet unripe, and hence unready for 
the more difficult truths or the more exalted emotions 



94 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

of religion, the child is at his best in the matter of habit- 
forming. For habits grounded in early childhood are 
more easily formed and more deeply imbedded than 
those acquired at any later time, and they exert a 
stronger control over the life. 

How habits grow. — But habits do not come of their 
own accord; they must be gradually acquired. Imme- 
diately back of every habit lies a chain of acts out of 
which the habit grows. Given the acts, and the habit 
is as sure to follow as night the day. Hence the great 
thing in religious instruction of the young is to afford 
opportunity for our teaching to be carried as imme- 
diately as may be over into deeds. 

As we make the desired impressions upon the minds 
of our pupils, we must see that the way is reasonably 
open for expression. The lessons should be so direct, 
simple, and clear that there is no difficulty in con- 
necting them immediately with the daily life, and 
then we should do our best to see that the connection 
is made. 

As we teach we should have in mind the week that 
lies ahead in the child's life — in the home, the school, 
on the playground, in the community, and in whatever 
personal situations and problems we may know are 
being met. Then we should use every power as a teacher 
to make sure that we help the child meet the chal- 
lenge of his daily life with the finest acts, best deeds, 
and noblest conduct possible for him to command. 

APPLICATION OF RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION TO 
THE DAILY LIFE 

One great purpose, then, in religious instruction is 
to attach the stimulus and appeal of religion to the 
common round of daily life and experience of the child- 



LIFE AND CONDUCT 95 

As Christ came that we might have life, not a future 
life alone, but a full, happy, and worthy life in the 
present as well, so we come to the child as a teacher 
to help him in his life here and now. Our task at this 
point is to lead him to practice the great fundamental 
virtues whose value has been proved through ages of 
human experience, to incorporate directly into his living 
the lessons learned slowly and with great sacrifice by 
generations which have preceded him. Our aim will 
be to lead our pupils, out of their own choice and con- 
viction, to adopt and follow a code of action such as the 
following: 

/ will respect and care for my body. I will keep my 
body clean and pure. I will try to avoid sickness and 
disease. I will breathe good air day and night, and 
live out of doors all I can. Because I shall need all 
my strength and endurance at their best, I will pay 
no toll to the poisons of alcohol and nicotine. I will 
be temperate in my food, and eat such foods as will 
favor growth, health, and strength. I will bathe often, 
play and work hard, and get plenty of sleep and rest. 
My character will be judged by my poise and carriage; 
therefore I will try to walk, stand, and sit well, and 
not allow my manner to show slouchiness and care- 
lessness. Both because of my own self-respect and 
because I owe it to others, I will strive to make myself 
neat and attractive in dress and person. I will treat 
my body right so far as I can know what is best for it, 
and will do nothing to defile or injure any part of it. 
I will try to keep my body a fit dwelling place for my 
soul, for God gave them both to me. And I will do 
all I can to make my home, school, and community a 
beautiful and healthful place for others to live. 

/ will keep good-natured, cheerful, and responsive. 



96 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

Tasks grow easier and loads lighter when one is cheer- 
ful. I will therefore guard against gloomy and sullen 
moods, which not only make me unhappy, but cause 
unhappiness to those about me. I will watch that I 
may not be cross and irritable at home, and shall do 
my part to make home the bright and happy place I 
wish it to be. I will be careful not to grumble nor whine 
when things go wrong, or when I cannot have my 
own way. I will remember that troubles flee when 
we refuse to think about them. I will refuse to give 
way to ill temper, for I would not become its slave; 
rather will I learn to laugh at small troubles and an- 
noyances that cannot be cured. If I am feeling sad 
or unhappy, I will stop to speak a kind word or do a 
fine deed, and the gloom will disappear. 

I will take pride in work and thrift. The world has no 
place for the one who shirks. Some one toiled for 
every comfort I enjoy; some one worked for the clothing, 
shelter, food, and all the other good things that come 
to me. I must do my part, work, help others, and 
especially help in the home. I will not slight my tasks, 
but say; "I can!" and go at my work with a will. What 
though the task be hard — if it is mine, I'll do it! What 
though the lesson be long — if it is to be learned, I'll 
master it! If I can stand at the head of my class, I 
will, but only when I have earned the right by honest 
effort. Because the world contains so many who must 
go hungry for want of food, and who lack other ne- 
cessities and comforts, I will not needlessly spend nor 
waste anything of value. I will take pride in thrift 
and saving, and do all I can to encourage this spirit 
in others. I will respect and honor all worthy toil. 
I will thank the good God every day that he allows me 
to take part in the work round about me, and ask him 



LIFE AND CONDUCT 97 

to help me to do my share well in each seen or unseen 
part of every task. 

I will be honest and speak the truth. Only one who is 
honest is worthy of trust, and he who tells a lie con- 
fesses that he is a coward and afraid to let the truth 
be known. I will be honest even in little things, and 
will have no "white lies." Though it may seem a 
trifle to cheat in school or not play fair in a game, I 
will be above all trickery and deceit. Both in play 
and in work my fight must be clean and fair; I shall 
ask but for an even chance. I will give full value for 
whatever I receive; if I work for wages, I must make 
sure to earn them; if I secure honors or grades at school, 
I must win them. I will let alone all games of chance, 
for gambling takes what one has not earned, and is 
therefore stealing. 

/ will be obedient to the rules of my home and school 
and to the laws of my country. The rules of home and 
school and the laws of state and nation are made for 
the good of all; and wherever freedom rules there laws 
must be obeyed. I will not quibble nor seek to evade, 
but give prompt and cheerful obedience wherever my 
duty is to obey. I will honor the law and respect those 
in authority over me. I will not be one of those who 
must needs be watched, and narrowly held to right 
paths. I will obey not because of fear or compulsion, 
but gladly, because I choose to do the right. I will 
not tempt others to disobedience, nor to the violation 
of the law. I will be a loyal member of my home and 
school and a patriotic citizen of my country, doing 
all in my power to advance their welfare and interests. 

2" will be courteous and kind. The men and women 
whom people love and admire are courteous and kind. 
The strong and the brave are never cruel, they do not 



98 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

willingly injure others nor hurt their feelings. I will 
strive each day to be courteous at home, kind to those 
who are nearest to me, and helpful to my friends and 
companions. I will not knowingly cause pain or suffer- 
ing to any person. I will extend my protection and 
kindness to all animals and every dumb and helpless 
thing, remembering that pain is pain wherever felt, 
in a worm as well as in a man. Especially will I show 
my best courtesy to aged and infirm persons, and to 
all such as may need help. It will be my high privilege 
to render service to any who are unfortunate, crippled, 
or in distress. I will do unto others what I would 
have them do unto me. 

/ will show courage and self-control. I should not 
want to be a coward, for cowardice always brings pity 
and contempt. I know that all must at times meet 
pain and suffering; and when the time comes to me 
I must not lose my courage and self-control; I will not 
shrink nor cringe, but find strength in remembering 
that many have suffered and endured without com- 
plaint. I will avoid danger and unnecessary risk when- 
ever possible, but if accident or duty puts me in a place 
of danger, I must try to keep a cool head and to show 
my mettle by doing my full duty bravely. When 
sometimes things go wrong, and I cannot have my own 
way, I shall show my courage and self-command by 
keeping my temper and tongue under control; I will 
be a good sportsman and not complain, nag, nor find 
fault. I will make it a rule, if I feel my anger rising, 
to think twice before I speak or act. If I have wronged 
or offended anyone, I will be strong enough to go and 
make it right, confessing my fault. When I am tempted 
to think or do or say what I know to be wrong, I will 
ask my heavenly Father for strength to overcome the 



LIFE AND CONDUCT 99 

temptation. It will be my constant purpose and care 
to keep myself pure in thought, word, and deed. 

/ will be dependable and do my duty. The world needs 
men and women on whom it can depend, and who are 
not afraid to do their duty at whatever cost. I must 
learn to face hardship and to meet the disagreeable 
without giving way before it. I must not ask what 
road is easy, but what way is right — and then do my 
duty. When I know I ought I must be able to say 
I will, even if the choice brings me pain and trouble. 
If I have undertaken any trust or task, I must not 
lag nor weaken nor grow careless, but faithfully see it 
through to the end. When my country calls, or the 
world needs my services, I must not consult my own 
wishes or convenience, but unfalteringly follow where 
duty leads. Whenever I can with justice and self- 
respect, I will avoid a quarrel; but I will not sit idly 
by and see injustice and oppression brought on the 
weak and helpless if I can prevent. 

/ will love and enjoy nature. The birds, the flowers, 
the trees and the brooks make the best of friends. 
I will study the great book of nature around me, and 
seek to learn the secrets of its many forms. I will 
live as much as I can in the great out-of-doors, rinding 
in its beauty and freshness new evidences of God's 
wisdom and goodness. I will never injure nor destroy, 
but do all I can to protect the beautiful living and 
growing things about me. I will find joy in the storm, 
the rain, and the snow, and then no day will seem 
dreary or dull to me. I will seek for some good purpose 
in all harmless created things, making comrades of 
my animal playmates, and taking an interest in all 
such things as creep or crawl or fly; and need then 
never be lonely nor lack good company. I will look 



ioo HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

upon the glory of the sunset, the wonder of a starlit 
night, the sparkle of the dew, and then reverently 
thank God that he has made the great world so beau- 
tiful and good. 

/ will each day turn to my heavenly Father for help, 
strength , and forgiveness, I know I cannot live my life 
as I should live it without God's help and counsel. 
I will therefore turn to him in prayer that he will guide 
me when I am puzzled or uncertain, that he will give 
me victory when I am tempted to do wrong, that he 
will give me courage when I falter or am afraid, that 
he will forgive me when I have sinned or failed in my 
duty. I will take for my standard of life and action 
the example of Jesus, and show my love and appre- 
ciation by living as fully as I can the kind of life he 
lived. I know that I cannot have God's presence in 
my life unless I keep my heart pure and my conduct 
right; I will therefore, with his help, as nearly as I 
can, live from day to day as I think God would have 
me live. I will take time morning and evening of each 
day for a few moments of prayer, quiet thought, and 
for the study of the Bible. I will do my best to be a 
worthy Christian. 

The teacher, of course, will need to adapt the appli- 
cation of such principles as those we have been dis- 
cussing to the age and the needs of his pupils. Such 
lessons cannot be presented as so much abstract truth. 
The purpose, as we have already seen, is to lead 
the child to make such high ideals his habit of life 
and action, so that at last they may govern his 
conduct and become an inseparable part of his char- 
acter. To do this, such ideals must be made desirable 
and attainable. 



LIFE AND CONDUCT 101 

PARTICIPATION IN THE WORK OF THE CHURCH 
AND SOCIAL SERVICE 

The forming of religious social habits is as important 
as the forming of religious personal habits. From his 
earliest years the child should come to look on his 
church, his Sunday school, and the class to which he 
belongs as a responsibility in which he has a personal 
share. His experience in connection with these organ- 
izations should be so interesting and satisfying that 
his attendance does not have to be compelled, but so 
that his loyalty, affection, and pride naturally lead 
him to them. 

When this is accomplished, the basis of good attend- 
ance is secured, and the foundation laid for later par- 
ticipation in all forms of church work. Once the right 
spirit is created and right habits developed, unpleasant 
weather, bad roads or streets, getting up late on Sunday 
mornings, nor any other obstacles will stand in the 
way of regular church and Sunday school attendance 
any more than of day-school attendance. And until 
the church has its children (and their homes) so trained 
that attendance on the church school is regular through- 
out the year, our instruction must of necessity fail 
to reach its full aim. 

Learning to take responsibility for others. — 
One of the greatest lessons a child can learn from his 
lessons in religion is that he is his brother's keeper. 
The instincts of childhood are naturally selfish and 
self-centered; the sense of responsibility for others 
must be gradually trained and developed. A double 
purpose can therefore be served by enlisting the chil- 
dren of our classes as recruiting officers to secure new 
members, and to look up any who may have dropped 



102 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

out or whose attendance is irregular. The sense of 
pride and emulation in such work, and the feeling on 
the part of our pupils that they are actually accom- 
plishing something definite for their class or school 
will do much to cement loyalty and train the children 
to assume responsibility for their comrades. 

This pride of the group is a strong force during later 
childhood and adolescence, and can be fruitfully used 
in religious training. The boy or the girl Scout takes 
great pride in doing acts of kindness and service with- 
out personal reward, just because that is one of the things 
that scouting stands for. " Scouts are expected to do 
this," or "Scouts are not expected to do that," has all 
the force of law to the loyal Scout. 

The Sunday school class can command the same 
spirit if the proper appeal is made. In its neighborhood 
work and on many special occasions the church and 
the Sunday school will have need of messenger service. 
Errands will have to be run, articles will have to be 
gathered and distributed, calls will have to be made, 
funds will have to be collected, and a hundred other 
things done which children can do as well or better 
than anyone else. And it is precisely in these practical 
acts of homely service that the child gets his best train- 
ing in the social side of religion. 

Laboratory work in religion. — The wise teacher will 
therefore seize upon every opportunity to find some- 
thing worth while for his pupils to do. He will have 
them help with the distribution of supplies in the class- 
room; he will. see that they volunteer to help the super- 
intendent or other officials who may need assistance; 
he will give them responsibility in decorating the church 
or classroom for special occasions; he will leave to 
their cooperation as large a measure as possible of the 



LIFE AND CONDUCT 103 

work to be done in arranging and carrying out class 
or school picnics, excursions, social gatherings, and the 
like; he will arrange for special groups to visit the aged, 
sick, or shut-in for the purpose of singing gospel songs, 
and will open the way for those who are qualified to 
do so to read the Bible or other matter to the blind 
or those whose sight is failing. In short, the devoted 
teacher who understands the laws of childhood will 
make his instruction as nearly as possible a laboratory 
course in religion, rinding the material and the occasion 
in the human needs and the opportunities for loving 
service which He closest at hand. 

Assuming personal responsibility. — The sense of the 
child's responsibility for his class and school must also 
carry into the exercise of the school itself. The boy 
should be led to prepare his lesson because of the truth 
it contains; but also because a recitation cannot be a 
success unless the pupils know their lesson and do 
their part. He should pay his share toward the running 
of the school and church because it is our duty to give, 
but also because he feels a personal responsibility for 
his church and his class. He should take part in public 
prayer or the leadership of meetings, when asked to do, 
because it is right and proper to do these things, but 
also because he realizes that each member of the class 
and school owes it to the organization to do his 
share. 

Nothing can take the place of whole-hearted, joyous 
participation in the real activities of the Sunday school 
as a means of catching the interest of the members 
and securing their loyalty; for interest and loyalty 
finally attach to those activities in Which we have a 
share. The school in which the child finds a chance 
to express the lessons and put into practice the maxims 



io 4 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

he is taught is the school which is building Christian 
character and providing for future religious leadership. 

Participation in singing. — Especially should we de- 
velop in our children the ability and will to engage 
in religious singing. Almost every child can sing, and 
all children respond to the appeal of music adapted 
to their understanding. The most expert and inspiring 
leadership which the church can command should be 
placed in charge of the children's singing in the Sunday 
school. 

If it comes to the question of selecting between a 
director for the adult choir and a soloist for the gen- 
eral congregation on the one hand, or an efficient or- 
ganizer and director of children's music on the other 
hand, there should not be a moment's hesitation on the 
part of any church to supply the needs of the children 
first. The aim should then be to have all the children 
sing, and allow none to form the habit of depending 
on the older members or on a few leaders to supply 
the singing for the entire school. Those who possess 
special ability in music should be formed into choruses, 
orchestras, school bands, or similar organizations. 
Not only will all this add to the interest and effective- 
ness of the school itself, but, not less important, will 
be helping to form the music habit in connection with 
sacred music. 

Training in giving. — The missionary enterprises of 
the church afford one of the best opportunities for 
giving the child practical training in the social aspect 
of religion. It is not enough that the children shall 
be told the stories of the missionary heroes and given 
the picture of the needs of the people in far-away lands. 
Once the imagination is stirred and the emotions warmed 
by this instruction, an immediate and natural outlet 



LIFE AND CONDUCT 105 

in expression must be found if these lessons are to 
fulfill their end. 

Children should early be led into giving money for 
missionary purposes, and this as far as possible should 
be their own money which they themselves have 
earned. For the child to go to his father on a Sunday 
morning for money for the missionary collection does 
not answer the need on the educational side; it is the 
child's real sharing that leaves the impression and 
teaches the lesson. 

There is also real educational value in leading chil- 
dren to give clothing, food, or other necessities for the 
use of the needy. Here, again, the giving should in- 
volve something of real sacrifice and sharing, and not 
consist merely in giving away that for which the child 
himself no longer cares. The joint giving by a class 
or the entire school for the support of a missionary 
worker whose name is known, and a somewhat detailed 
report of whose work is received, lends immediateness 
and reality to the participation of the pupils. A strong 
appeal can be made to the spirit of giving by the adop- 
tion by the class of some needy boy or girl whose Chris- 
tian education is provided for by the efforts of the 
class, and to whom personal letters can be written and 
from whom replies may be received. 

Social service. — The children of our Sunday schools 
should be given an active and prominent part in all 
forms of community welfare service. The successful 
enlistment of the Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts in 
many valuable forms of community enterprises contains 
a vital suggestion and lesson for the church school. 
Wherever good deeds need to be done, wherever help 
needs to be rendered, wherever kindness and service 
are necessary, there the children should be called upon 



106 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

to do their part. If the tasks and responsibilities are 
suited to the various ages, there will be no trouble about 
securing response. Nor, on the other hand, will there 
be any doubt but that the lessons learned will be entirely 
vital and will serve to connect the religious motive 
with everyday life and its activities. 

Religion rinding expression in the home. — No 
system or method of religious instruction is effective 
the results of which do not find expression in the life 
of the home. It is here in the intimate relations of 
children with each other and with their parents that 
the moral and religious lessons of forbearance, good 
will, and mutual service find most frequent and vital 
opportunity for application. 

Children need early to be made to see their individual 
and joint responsibility for the happiness, cheerfulness, 
good nature, and general social tone of their home; 
and to help at these points should become a part of 
their religion. They should be stimulated to share 
in the care of the home, and not to shirk their part 
of its work. They should be interested in the home's 
finances, and come to feel a personal responsibility 
for saving or earning as the situation may require. 
They should have a definite part in the hospitality 
which the home extends to its friends and neighbors, 
and come by experience to sense the true meaning of 
the word "neighborliness." 

The appearance and attractiveness of their home 
should be a matter of pride with children, and this 
feeling should cause them to be careful in their own 
habits of neatness, cleanliness, and order about the 
home. All these things have a bearing on the founda- 
tions of character and are therefore a legitimate con- 
cern in religious instruction. 



LIFE AND CONDUCT 107 

The final tests of our instruction. — In such things 
as we have been discussing, then, we find one of the 
surest tests of the outcome of our teaching the child 
religion — Are the lessons carrying over? Is the child, 
because of our contact with him, growing in attractive- 
ness and strength of personality and character? Is he 
developing a habit of prayer, devotion, spiritual turn- 
ing to God? Is he doing a reasonable amount of reading 
and study of the Bible and the lesson material of the 
school? Is he taking such personal part in the various 
social and religious activities of the church and the 
community that he is "getting his hand in," and de- 
veloping the attachments and loyalties which can come 
only through participation? In short, is the child 
given a chance to apply, and does he daily put into 
practice and thus into character, the content and spirit 
of what we teach him? 

The answers we must return to these questions will 
measure our success as teachers and determine the value 
coming to the child from our instruction. 

1. To what extent do you believe your pupils are living 
differently in their daily lives for the instruction you are 
giving them? Do you definitely plan your teaching to ac- 
complish this aim? For example, what definite results are 
you seeking from the next lesson? 

2. Can you think your class over pupil by pupil and de- 
cide which of these points in the code of action most needs 
be stressed in individual cases ? Do the topics in this code 
suggest points of emphasis which might serve for many 
different lessons ? Is there danger of loss m efficiency if we 
try to stress too many of the points at one time? 

3. Are the children of your class interested in keeping up 
the membership and attendance ? What specific part and 
responsibility do you give the members in this matter? 



108 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

Is it possible that you could plan to use their help more 
fully and effectively ? 

4. Suppose you try making a list of all the different lines 
of participation in religious activities directly opened up to 
the pupils of your class by the church and the church 
school. Is the list as long as it should be? What further 
provision could be made for the children to have definite 
responsibility and activity ? 

5. Do you think that your pupils are becoming increas- 
ingly inclined to look upon religion as a mode of living? 
For example, will your children be more agreeable, respon- 
sive, obedient, and helpful in the home next week for the 
lessons you have been teaching them? Will they have 
higher standards of conduct in the school and on the play- 
ground ? 

FOR FURTHER READING 

Dewey, Moral Principles in Education. 

Sharp, Education for Character. 

Partridge, Genetic Philosophy of Education, chapters on 

" Moral and Religious Education." 
Mumford, The Dawn of Character. 
Richardson, The Religious Education of Adolescents. 
Alexander, Boy Training. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE SUBJECT MATTER OF RELIGIOUS 
EDUCATION 

We have seen in an earlier chapter how the subject 
matter of religious education must be selected in ac- 
cordance with the aims we would have it accomplish 
in the lives of our pupils. We have also considered in 
separate chapters the religious knowledge required, the 
religious attitudes demanded and the practical applica- 
tions of religious instruction to be made or the expression 
to be sought in the everyday life. Let us now examine 
somewhat more completely the particular phases of 
subject matter which should be used to attain these 
ends — To what sources shall we go for the material 
for the religious instruction of our children? What 
subject matter shall we put into the curriculum of 
religious education? This is a question of supreme 
importance to the individual, to the church, and to 
civilization. 

SOURCES OF MATERIAL 

First of all we must realize that the sources of re- 
ligious material are almost infinitely broad and rich. 
They are much broader than the Bible. I would not 
be misunderstood on this point. I conceive the Bible 
as the matchless textbook of religion, the great repos- 
itory of spiritual wisdom through the ages. It is the 
primary source to which we must go for material for 
religious instruction, not just because it is the Bible, 

109 



no HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

but because its truths are the surest guide ever formu- 
lated for spiritual development. 

Yet human experience and human problems are 
broader than the Bible. New ages bring new condi- 
tions and new needs. Eternal truths may take on new 
forms to meet new problems. God inspired the writers 
of his Word, but he also inspires other writers, whose 
works are not included in the canon. He echoed in 
the voice of Isaiah and Jeremiah, but he also touches 
with the flame of eloquence other lips than those of 
the prophets. He spoke to the child Samuel, but he 
also speaks to-day to every heart that will hear his 
voice. He flamed from the burning bush for Moses, 
but in like manner he shines from every glowing sun- 
set for those whose eyes can there behold his glory. 

Breadth and richness of religious material. — 
The sources of material available for the religious edu- 
cation of childhood are therefore as broad as the multi- 
form ways in which God speaks to men, and as rich 
as all the great experiences of men which have left 
their impress upon civilization. Besides the beautiful 
story of God creating the earth, we have the wonderful 
miracle of constant re-creation going on before our 
eyes in the succession of generations of all living things. 

Besides the deathless accounts of the heroism of 
such men as Elijah, Daniel, and Paul, we have the 
immortal deeds of Livingstone, Taylor, and Luther. 
Besides the womanly courage and strength of Esther 
and Ruth, we have the matchless devotion of Florence 
Nightingale, Frances Willard, Alice Freeman Palmer, 
and Jane Addams. Besides the stirring poetry of the 
Bible, and its appealing stories, myths and parables, 
we have the marvelous treasure house of religious 
literary wealth found in the writings of Tennyson, 



THE SUBJECT MATTER in 

Whittier, Bryant, Phillips Brooks, and many other 
writers. 
Material to be drawn from many sources. — 

The material for religious teaching lying ready to our 
hand is measureless in amount, and must be wisely 
chosen. In addition to material from the Bible, which 
always must be the center and foundation of the re- 
ligious curriculum, should be taken other material 
from nature; from biography, history, and life itself; 
from literature and story; from science and the great 
world of objects about us; from music, and from art. 
All of this multiform subject matter must be welded 
together with a common purpose, and so permeated 
with the religious motive and application that it will 
touch the child's spiritual thought and feeling at many 
points of his experience. 

At no moment, however, must we forget that our 
primary purpose is not simply to teach the child stories, 
literature, history, or science, but religion. By the 
proper use of this broader field of material religion 
may be given a new and more practical significance, 
and the Bible itself take on a deeper meaning from 
finding its setting among realities closely related to the 
child's daily life. 

MATERIAL FROM THE BIBLE 

The very nature of the Bible requires that we make 
the most careful selections from it in choosing the 
material for religious instruction of children. Not all 
parts of the Bible are of equal value as educational 
material, and some parts of it have no place in the 
course of study before full mental development has 
been reached. 

How we came by the Bible. — It will help us to 



ii2 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

understand and apply these principles if we remember 
how we came by the Bible. First of all is the fact that 
the Bible grew out of religion and the life of the church, 
and not religion and the church out of the Bible. The 
Bible is not one book, as many think of it, but a col- 
lection of sixty-six books, which happen to be bound 
together. In fact, all sixty-six of these books are now 
printed and bound separately by the American Bible 
Society, and sold at a penny each. These sixty-six 
books were centuries in the making, and they came 
from widely separated regions. Different ones of them 
were originally written in different tongues — Hebrew, 
Greek, and Aramaic. 

The earlier Christians had, of course, only the scrip- 
tures of the Old Testament. It was nearly four hundred 
years after Christ had lived on earth before we had 
a list of the New Testament books such as our Bible 
now contains. In the middle of the second century 
only about half of the present New Testament was in 
use as a part of the Scriptures. Some of the books 
which we now include were at one time or another 
omitted by the Christian scholars, and several books 
were at one time accorded a place which are not now 
accepted as a part of the Bible. The authorship of 
a considerable number of the books of the Bible is 
unknown, and even the exact period to which they 
belong is uncertain. 

The different writers wrote with different purposes 
— one was a historian; another a poet; another, as Paul, 
a theologian; another a preacher; another a teller of 
stories and myths, or a user of parables. Paul wrote 
his letters to local churches or to individuals, to answer 
immediate questions or meet definite conditions and 
needs. Jesus left no written word, so far as we know, 



THE SUBJECT MATTER 113 

and the first written accounts we have of his life and 
work were begun forty or fifty years after his death. 

The problem of selecting Bible material adapted 
to children. — The Bible was therefore a slow growth. 
It did not take its form in accordance with any par- 
ticular or definite plan. It never was meant as a con- 
nected, organized textbook, to be studied in the same 
serial and continuous order as other books. It was not 
written originally for children, but for adults to read. 

Its enduring quality proves that the writers of the 
Bible lived close to the heart and thought of God, 
and were therefore inspired of him. But we can grant 
this and still feel free to select from its lessons and 
truths the ones that are most directly fitted to meet 
the needs of our children as we train them in religion. 
We can love and prize the Bible for all that it means 
and has meant to the world, and yet treat it as a 
means and not an end in itself. We can believe in its 
truth and inspiration, and still leave out of the lessons 
we give our children the sections which contain little 
of interest or significance for the child's life, or mat- 
ter which is beyond his grasp and understanding. 

Material which may be omitted. — This point of 
view implies the omission, at least from the earlier 
part of the child's religious education, of much material 
from different parts of the Bible; these irrelevant sec- 
tions or material not suited to the understanding of 
childhood may remain for adult study. 

For example, we may leave out such matter as the 
following: The detailed account of the old Hebrew 
law as given in Leviticus; much of the Hebrew history 
which has no direct bearing on the understanding of 
their religion; details of the institution of the passover, 
and other ecclesiastical arrangements; the philosophy 



ii 4 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

of the book of Job; genealogies which have no especial 
significance nor interest; the succession of judges and 
kings; dates and chronological sequences of no par- 
ticular importance; any stories or matter clearly meant 
to be understood as allegory or myth, but which the 
child would misunderstand, or take as literal and so 
get a mistaken point of view which later would have 
to be corrected; the theology of Paul as set forth in 
his letters; matter which shows a lower state of moral- 
ity than that on which we live; and such other matter 
as does not have some direct and discoverable relation 
to the religious knowledge, attitudes, and applications 
which should result from the study. 

After all such material of doubtful value to the 
child has been omitted, there still remains an abundance 
of rich, inspiring, and helpful subject matter. 

The principle on which to select material from the 
Bible is clear: Know what the child is ready for in his 
grasp and understanding; know what he needs to stim- 
ulate his religious imagination and feeling and further 
his moral and religious development. Then choose 
the material accordingly. 

Bible material for earlier childhood. — For the pe- 
riod of earlier childhood (ages three or four to eight or 
nine) we shall need to omit all such material as deals 
with the broader and deeper theory of religion. This 
is not the time to teach the child the significance of 
the atonement, the mystery of regeneration, the power 
of faith, nor the doctrine of the Trinity. Those sections 
of the Bible which deal with such far-reaching concepts 
as these must wait for later age and fuller development. 

The child is now ready to understand about God as 
the Creator of the earth and of man; he is ready to 
comprehend God as Father and Friend, and Jesus as 



THE SUBJECT MATTER 115 

Brother and Helper; he is ready to learn lessons of 
obedience to God, and of being sorry when he has done 
wrong; he is therefore ready to understand forgive- 
ness; he is ready to learn all lessons of kindliness, truth- 
fulness, and honesty, and of courage; he is ready to 
learn to pray, and to thank God for his care and kind- 
liness. The Bible material taught the child should 
therefore center upon these things. The simple, beau- 
tiful story of the creation; stories of God's love, pro- 
vision, and protection and of Christ's care for children; 
incidents of heroic obedience and of God's punishment 
of disobedience; stories of forgiveness following wrong- 
doing and repentance; stories of courage and strength 
under temptation to do wrong; lessons upon prayer 
and praise and thanksgiving — this is the kind of ma- 
terial from the Bible which we should give our children 
of this younger age. 

The greater part of the material for this stage of 
instruction will come from the Old Testament, and 
will make the child familiar with the childhood of Moses, 
Samuel, Joseph, David, and other such characters as 
possess an especial appeal to the child's sympathy and 
imagination. The New Testament must be drawn 
upon for the material bearing upon the birth and child- 
hood of Jesus. 

Material for later childhood. — In the period of later 
childhood (ages eight or nine to twelve or thirteen) the 
child is still unready for the more difficult and doctrinal 
parts of the Scriptures. Most of the impulses of earlier 
childhood still continue, even if in modified form. 
Types of Bible material adapted to the earlier years, 
therefore, still can be used to advantage. 

A marked characteristic of this period, however, is 
the tendency to hero worship and to be influenced by 



n6 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

the ideals found in those who are loved and admired. 
This is the time, therefore, to bring to the child the 
splendid example and inspiration of the great Bible 
characters. The life and work of Moses, the story of 
Joseph and his triumph over discouragements and 
difficulties, the stern integrity and courage of Elijah 
and the other prophets, the beautiful stories of Ruth, 
Esther, Miriam, and Rachel, but above all the story 
of Jesus — the account of these lives will minister to 
the child's impulse to hero worship and at the same 
time teach him some of the most valuable lessons in 
religion. 

During later childhood the sense of personal respon- 
sibility for conduct is developing, and the compre- 
hension of the meaning of wrongdoing and sin. This 
is the time, therefore, to bring in lessons from the Bible 
showing the results of sin and disobedience to God, 
and the necessity for repentance and prayer for for- 
giveness. During this period also, while the social 
interests are not yet at their highest, the narrow selfish- 
ness of earlier childhood should be giving way to a 
more generous and social attitude, and a sense of respon- 
sibility for the welfare and happiness of others. 

To meet the needs of the growing nature at this 
point many lessons should be provided containing sug- 
gestions and inspiration from high examples of self- 
forge tfulness, sacrifice, and service as found in the life 
of Jesus, Paul, and many others from the Old and the 
New Testament. The child's growing acquaintance 
with the world about him and his study of nature in 
the day schools prepare him for still further deepening 
his realization of God beneficently at work in the ma- 
terial universe. Abundant material may be found in 
the Bible to deepen and strengthen the learner's love 



THE SUBJECT MATTER 117 

and appreciation of the beautiful and good in the physical 
world. 

Material for adolescence. — The adolescent period 
(ages twelve or thirteen to twenty or twenty-two) is 
the transition stage from childhood to maturity. The 
broader, deeper, and more permanent interests are now 
developing, and character is taking its permanent 
trend. Conduct, choice, and decision are becoming 
more personal and less dependent on others. A new 
sense of self is developing, and deeper recognition of 
individual responsibility is growing. 

It is all-important that at this time the Bible material 
should furnish the most of inspiration and guidance 
possible. The life and service of Jesus will now exert 
its fullest appeal, and should be studied in detail. The 
work and service of Paul and of the apostles in found- 
ing the early church will fire the imagination and quicken 
the sense of the world's need of great lives. The ethical 
teachings of the Bible should now be made prominent, 
and should be made effective in shaping the ideals of 
personal and of social conduct which are crystallizing. 
The development of the Hebrew religion, with its ethical 
teaching, and the moral quality of the Christian religion 
are now fruitful matter for study. 

During the later part of adolescence the youth is 
ready to consider biblical matter that throws light 
on the deeper meaning of sin, of redemption, of re- 
pentance, of forgiveness, of regeneration, and other 
such vital concepts from our religion. The simplest 
and least controversial interpretations — that is, the 
broader and more significant meanings — should be pre- 
sented, and not the overspeculative and disputed inter- 
pretations, which are almost certain to lead to mental 
and perhaps spiritual disturbance and even doubt. 



n8 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

The guiding principle. — For whatever age or stage of 
the child's development we are responsible, we will 
follow the same principle. Because we want to cul- 
tivate in the child a deep and continuing interest in 
the Bible and the things for which it stands, we will 
seek always to bring to him such material as will appeal 
to his interest, stir his imagination, and quicken his 
sense of spiritual values. Since we desire to influence 
the learner's deeds and shape his conduct through our 
teaching, we will present to him those lessons from the 
Bible which are most naturally and inevitably trans- 
lated into daily living. First we will know what im- 
pression we seek to make or what application we hope 
to secure, and then wisely choose from the rich Bible 
sources the material which will most surely accomplish 
this end. 

STORY MATERIAL 

The story is the chief and most effective means of 
teaching the younger child religion, nor does the appeal 
of the story form of expressing truth lose its charm for 
those of older years. Lessons incomprehensible if put 
into formal precept can be readily understood by the 
child if made a part of life and action, and the story 
does just this. It shows virtue being lived; goodness 
proving itself; strength, courage, and gentleness ex- 
pressing themselves in practice; and selfishness, ugli- 
ness, and wrong revealing their unlovely quality. Taught 
in the story way, the lesson is so plain that even the child 
cannot miss it. 

The story also appeals to the child's imagination, 
which is so ready for use and so vivid, and which it 
is so necessary to employ upon good material in order 
to safeguard its possessor from using it in harmful 



THE SUBJECT MATTER 119 

ways. Long before the child has come to the age of 
understanding reasoned truth, therefore, he may well 
have implanted in his mind many of the deepest and most 
beautiful religious truths which will ever come to him. 

The Old Testament rich in story material. — 
The wonderful religious and ethical teachings of the 
Old Testament belong to a child-nation, and were 
written by men who were in freshness of heart and in 
picturesqueness and simplicity of thought essentially 
child-men; hence these teachings are in large part 
written in the form of story, of legend, of allegory, 
of myth, of vivid picture and of unrimed poetry. It is 
this quality which makes the material so suitable to 
the child. The deeper meanings of the story do not 
have to be explained, even to the young child; he grasps 
them, not all at once, but slowly and surely as the story 
is told and retold to him. If the story is properly told, 
the child does not have to be taught that the Bible 
myth or legend is myth or legend; he accepts it as such, 
not troubling to analyze or explain, but unconsciously 
appropriating such inner meaning as his experience 
makes possible, and building the lesson into the struc- 
ture of his growing nature. 

If full advantage is taken of the story as a means of 
religious teaching, the grounding of the child in the 
fundamental concepts and attitudes of religion can 
be accomplished with certainty and effectiveness almost 
before the age for really formal instruction has come. 

The ethical quality alone not enough in stories. 
— Many stories of highest religious value are available 
from other sources than the Bible, yet no other stories 
can ever wholly take the place of the Bible stories. 
For the Bible stories possess one essential quality 
lacking in stories from other sources; the Bible stories 



120 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

are saturated with God. And this is an element wholly 
vital to the child's instruction in religion. 

We cannot teach the child religion on the basis of 
ethics alone, necessary as morality is to life. We can- 
not help the child to spiritual growth and the conscious- 
ness of God in his life without having the matter we 
teach him permeated and made alive with the spirit 
and presence of God in it. Nor is there the least diffi- 
culty for the child to understand God in the stories. 
The child, like the Hebrews themselves, does not feel 
any necessity of explaining or accounting for God, 
but readily and naturally accepts him and the part 
he plays in our affairs as a matter of course. 

Stories from other than Bible sources. — But 
once a sufficient proportion of Bible stories is provided 
for, stories should be freely drawn from other fields. 
An abundance of rich material possessing true religious 
worth can be found in the myths, legends, folk lore, 
and heroic tales of many literatures. These are a 
treasure house with which every teacher of children 
should be familiar; nor is the task a burdensome one, 
for much of this material holds a value and charm 
even for the older ones of us. 

Later writers have enriched the fund of material 
available for children by treating many of the aspects 
of nature in story form, thereby opening up to the 
mind and heart of the child something of the meaning 
and beauty of the physical world, and showing God 
as the giver of many good gifts in this realm of our 
lives. There are also available the stories of history, 
and of the real men and women whose lives have blessed 
our own or other times, and whose deeds and achieve- 
ments will appeal to the imagination and stir the ideals 
of youth. 



THE SUBJECT MATTER 121 

The teacher as a story teller. — The successful 
teacher of religion must therefore possess the art which 
will enable him to use the story as one of the chief 
forms of material in his instruction. He must know 
the stories. He must be able to tell them interestingly. 
The story loses half of its effectiveness if it must be 
read to the child, but it may lose in similar proportion 
if it is haltingly or ineffectively told. It is not necessary, 
at least for the younger children, to use a large number 
of stories. In fact, there is positive disadvantage in 
attempting to employ so many stories that the child 
does not become wholly familiar with each separate 
one. Children do not tire of the stories they like; 
indeed, their love for a story increases as they come 
to know it well, and they will demand to have the same 
story told over and over in preference to a new one. 

The use of the story with older children. — A 
mistake has been made in not a few of the Sunday 
school lesson series in sharply reducing the story ma- 
terial for all ages above the primary grades. It must 
be remembered that while the older child has more 
power to grasp and understand abstract lessons than 
the younger child, there is no age or stage of develop- 
ment at which the story and the concrete illustration 
are not an attractive and effective mode of teaching. 
Surely, all through the junior and intermediate grades 
the story should be one of the chief forms of material 
for religious instruction, while for adolescents stories 
will still be far from negligible. 

The principles of story-using, then, are clear in the 
teaching of religion: Make the story one of the chief 
instruments of instruction; see that it is charged with 
religious and moral value; make sure it is adapted to the 
age of the learner, and that it is well told; for younger 



122 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

children use few stories frequently repeated until they 
are well known; do not insist that ilie child shall at first 
grasp the deeper meanings of the story, make sure of 
interest and enjoyment, and the meaning will come later, 

MATERIAL FROM NATURE 

The child's spontaneous love of nature and ready 
response to the world of objects about him open up 
rich sources of material for religious instruction. God 
who creates the beautiful flowers, who causes the breezes 
to blow, who carpets the earth with green, who paints 
the autumn hillside with glowing color, who directs 
the coming and going of the seasons, who tells the 
buds when to swell and the leaves to unfold, who directs 
the sparrow in its flight and the bee in its search, who 
is in the song of the birds and the whisper of the leaves, 
who sends his rain and makes the thunder roll — this 
God can be brought, through the medium of nature's 
forms, very near to the child. And the love and appre- 
ciation which the child lavishes on the dear and beau- 
tiful things about him will extend naturally and with- 
out trouble of comprehension to their Creator. 

Nature material useful for all ages. — Most of the 
lesson material now supplied for our Sunday schools 
use a considerable amount of nature material in the 
earlier grades, but some important lesson series omit 
most or all nature material from the junior depart- 
ment on. This is a serious mistake. All through child- 
hood and youth the pupil is continuing in the public 
school his study of nature and its laws. Along with 
this broadening of knowledge of the natural world should 
be the deepening of appreciation of its spiritual mean- 
ing, and the inspiration to praise and worship which 
comes from it. One ctoes not, or at least should not, 



THE SUBJECT MATTER 123 

at any age outgrow his response to the wonders and 
beauties which nature unfolds before him who has 
eyes to see its inner meaning. None can afford to lose 
the simple, untutored awe with which children and 
primitive men look out upon the world. 

Carlyle, recognizing this truth, exclaims: "This 
green, flowery, rock-built earth, the trees, the moun- 
tains, rivers, many-sounding seas; that great deep sea 
of azure that swims overhead; the winds sweeping 
through it; the black cloud fashioning itself together, 
now pouring out fire, now hail and rain; what is it? 
Aye, what? . . . An unspeakable, godlike thing, toward 
which the best attitude for us, after never so much 
science, is awe, devout prostration, and humility of 
soul; worship, if not in words, then in silence." 

In the same spirit Max Muller exhorts us: "Look 
at the dawn, and forget for a moment your astronomy; 
and I ask you whether, when the dark veil of night 
is slowly lifted, and the air becomes transparent and 
alive, and light streams forth you know not whence, 
you would not feel that your eye were looking into the 
very eye of the Infinite?" And Emerson reminds us: 
"If the stars should appear one night in a thousand 
years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve 
for many generations the remembrance of the city of 
God which had been shown! But every night come 
out these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with 
their admonishing smile." 

When, then, shall we have become too far removed 
from childhood to be beyond the appeal of nature to 
our souls? When shall we cease to u hold communion 
with her visible forms," and to find in them one of the 
many avenues which God has left open for us to use 
in approaching him! What teacher of us will dare to 



i2 4 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

leave out of his instruction at any stage of the child's 
development the beneficent and wonder-working God of 
nature as he smiles his benediction upon us from the 
myriad common things around us! 

MATERIAL FROM HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 

God is to be found in the lives of nations and of 
men not less than in nature, and the evidences and 
effects of his presence there should be taught our chil- 
dren. The spirit which Jesus revealed in his life upon 
earth is exemplified in the lives of many of his followers 
who joyously spend themselves in the service of others. 
Men who set the standard for manliness, and women 
whose character and lives are the best definition of 
womanliness, are as much a revelation of God's work 
and power as a constellation of stars or the bloom of 
the rose. 

The example of great lives. — So, along with the 
great Bible characters we will bring to the child the 
men and women of other generations. We will bring 
to him the great souls who, as missionaries, have carried 
the Light to those who sit in darkness; those who in 
honesty and integrity of purpose have served as leaders 
of nations or armies or movements to the blessing of 
humanity; those who, with the love of God in their 
hearts, have gone out as ministers, teachers, writers 
of books, singers of songs, makers of pictures, healers 
of sickness; or those who, in any field of toil or service, 
have given the cup of cold water in the name of the 
Master. 

And we will bring to the child the story of the nations, 
showing him one people growing in strength, power, 
and happiness while following God's plan of human 
justice, mercy, and kindness; and another going down 



THE SUBJECT MATTER 125 

to destruction, its very name and speech forgotten, 
because it became arrogant and perverse and forgot 
the ways of righteousness. At the proper time in their 
development we will bring to our pupils the life and 
problems of the present — the wrongs that need to be 
righted, the causes that need to be defended and car- 
ried through to victory, the evil that needs to be sup- 
pressed, the work of Christ and the church which is 
awaiting workers. Thus shall we seek to bring the 
challenge of life itself to those we teach. 

PICTURE MATERIAL 

No discussion of the curriculum can ignore the use 
of pictures as teaching material. Teachers of religion 
have long recognized the value of visual instruction, 
and every lesson series now has its full quota of picture 
cards and other forms of pictorial material. 

In this picture material may roughly be distinguished 
three great types: (1) the symbolical picture; (2) the 
rather formal picture, often badly conceived and ex- 
ecuted, always dealing with biblical characters or inci- 
dents; and (3) the more universalized type drawn from 
every field of pictorial art, representing not only biblical 
personages and events, but also typifying aesthetic 
and moral values of every range adapted to the under- 
standing and appreciation of the child. 

Types of pictures. — Representative of the first, or 
symbolical, pictorial type are found the more or less 
crude pen drawings of such things as the heart with a 
key, an open Bible with a torch beside it, tombstone- 
like drawings representing the Tables of the Law or 
three interlocking circles representing the Trinity, etc. 

Not only are all these abstract concepts beyond the 
grasp or need of the child at the age when the pictures 



126 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

are represented, but the symbols are in no degree sug- 
gestive to the child of the lesson intended; they are 
devoid of meaning, without interest, possess no artistic 
value, and lack all teaching significance. Such ma- 
terial should be discarded, and better pictures provided. 

The second type of pictures, or those dealing with 
Bible topics, contain teaching power, but should be 
merged with the third, or true art, type. That is to 
say, biblical subjects, moral lessons, and inspiring ideals 
should be treated by true artists and made a part of the 
religious curriculum for childhood. Wherever suitable 
masterpieces executed by great artists can be found, 
copies should be made available for teaching religion. 
Hundreds of such pictures hang in our art galleries, 
and not a few of them have already been incorporated 
into several excellent series for the Sunday school. 

Further, the pictures offered children should be as 
carefully selected with reference to what they are to 
teach, and should be_as^ carefully graded to meet the 
age, interests, and appreciations of the child as are 
other forms of curriculum material. Some otherwise 
excellent picture sets of recent publication lose the 
greater part of their usefulness as teaching helps through 
the lack of this adaptation. 

MUSIC IN THE CURRICULUM 

Music as a part of the curriculum of religious edu- 
cation offers a peculiarly difficult problem. No other 
form of expression can take the place of music in creat- 
ing a spirit of reverence and devotion, or in inducing 
an attitude of worship and inspiring religious feeling 
and emotion. Children ought to sing much both in 
the church school and in their worship at home. 

Yet most of our hymns have been written for adults, 



THE SUBJECT MATTER 127 

and most of the music is better adapted to adult sing- 
ing than to the singing of children. The ragtime hymns 
which find a place in many Sunday school exercises 
need only to be mentioned to be condemned. On the 
other hand, many of the finest hymns of the church are 
beyond the grasp of the child in sentiment and beyond 
his ability in music. The church seriously needs a 
revival of religious hymnology for children. In the 
meantime the greatest care should be used to select 
hymns for children's singing which possess as fully as 
may be three requisites: (1) music adapted to the 
child's capacity, (2) music that is worthy, interesting 
and devotional, and (3) words within the child's under- 
standing and interest, and suitable in sentiment. 

1. Many persons think that teaching the child religion 
and teaching him the Bible are precisely the same thing. 
Do you think it is possible to teach the child parts of the 
Bible without securing for him spiritual development from 
the process? Is it possible to make the Bible itself mean 
more to the child by supplementing it with material from 
other sources? 

2. Do you ever find lessons provided for your class 
which are not adapted to their age and understanding? 
If so, do you feel free to supplement or substitute with ma- 
terial which meets their needs? Do you have sufficient 
command of the material of the Bible and other sources 
so that you can do this successfully? 

3. Do you know a considerable number of stories 
adapted to the age of your pupils? Are you constantly 
adding to your list ? Are you a good story teller? Are you 
studying to improve in this line ? Even if your lesson ma- 
terial does not provide stories, do you bring such material 
in for your class? 

4. What use do you make of nature in the teaching of 
religion? President Hall thinks that nature material is one 



128 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

of the best sources of religious instruction. Do you agree 
with him? Are you sufficiently in love with nature your- 
self, and sufficiently acquainted with nature so that you 
can successfully use the nature motive in your teaching? 

5. Do you constantly make use of stories and illustra- 
tions from the lives of great men and women in your teach- 
ing? Do you take a reasonable proportion of these from 
contemporary life ? Do you bring in stories of fine actions 
by boys and girls? What use have you been making of 
events in the lives of nations in your teaching? Are you 
reading and studying to become more fully prepared to use 
this type of material? 

FOR FURTHER READING 

Houghton, Telling Bible Stories. 

Raymont, The Use of the Bible in the Education of the 

Young. 
Bruce, The Training of the Twelve. 
Drake, Problems of Religion, chapter IX. 
Athearn, The Church School. 



CHAPTER VIII 
THE ORGANIZATION OF MATERIAL 

The organization of material to adapt it to the 
learner's mind and arrange it for the teacher's use in 
instruction is hardly less important than choosing the 
siibject matter itself. By organization is meant the 
plan, order, or arrangement by which the different 
sections of material are made ready for presentation 
to the child. The problems of organization may apply 
either (i) to the curriculum as a whole, or (2) to any 
particular section of it used for a day's lesson. 

It is possible to distinguish four different types of 
organization commonly used in preparing material for 
religious instruction: 

1. The haphazard, in which there is no definite plan 
or order, no thread of purpose or relationship uniting 
the parts, no guiding principle determining the order 
and sequence. 

2. The logical, in which the nature and relationships 
of the material itself determine the plan and order, the 
question of ease and effectiveness in learning being 
secondary or not considered. 

3. The chronological, applicable especially to his- 
torical material, in which the events, characters, and 
facts are taken up in the order of the time of their 
appearance and their sequence in the entire situation 
or account. 

4. The psychological, in which the first and most 
important question is the most natural and favorable 
mode of approach for the learner — how the material 

129 



i 3 o HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

shall be planned and arranged to suit his power and 
grasp, appeal to his interest, and relate itself to his 
actual needs and experience. 

TYPES OF ORGANIZATION 

Haphazard organization. — The haphazard plan, 
which is really no plan at all, is, of course, wholly inde- 
fensible. No teacher has a right to go before his class 
with his material in so nebulous a state that it lacks 
coordination and purpose. It is this that results in 
chance and unrelated questions, irrelevant discussions, 
and fruitless wanderings without definite purpose over 
the field of the lesson, such as may sometimes be seen 
in church classes. 

The outcome of such instruction hardly can be more 
than occasional disconnected scraps of information, or 
fragmentary impressions which are never gathered up 
and bound together into completed ideals and convic- 
tions. The haphazard type of organization may result 
from incompetence, indifference, and failure to prepare, 
or from taking a ready-made and poorly prepared plan 
from the "lesson helps" which is not adapted to our 
class. Pity the child assigned to a class presided over 
by a teacher who esteems his privilege so lightly as not 
to make ready for his task by careful planning. 

Logical organization. — In the logical arrangement of 
material, the first care is not given to planning it in 
the most favorable way for the one who studies and 
learns it, but, rather, to fit together the different parts 
of the subject matter in the way best suited to its log- 
ical relationships. The child is pedagogically ignored; 
the material receives primary consideration. The log- 
ical order of material fits the mind of the adult, the 
scholar, the expert, the master in his field of knowl- 



THE ORGANIZATION OF MATERIAL 131 

edge; it begins with the most general and abstract 
truths. But the child naturally starts with the par- 
ticular and the concrete. It gives rules, principles, 
definitions, while the child asks for illustrations, appli- 
cations, real instances, and actual cases. 

The logical method is adapted to the trained explorer 
in the fields of learning, to one who has been over the 
ground and knows all of its details, and not to the 
young novice just starting his discoveries in regions 
that are strange to him. The logical plan will teach 
the young child the general plan of salvation, man's 
fall and need of redemption, the wonder and significance 
of the atonement, and gracious effects of divine regen- 
eration working in the heart — all of which he needs 
finally to know — but not as a child just beginning the 
study of religion. The child must arrive at the general 
plan of salvation through realizing the saving power 
at work in his own life; he must come to understand the 
fall of man and his need of redemption through meet- 
ing his own childhood temptations and through seeing 
the effects of sin at work around him; he must under- 
stand the atonement and regeneration through the 
present and growing consciousness of a living Christ 
daily strengthening and redeeming his life. 

Chronological organization. — The chronological order 
of material is desirable at the later stages of the child's 
growth and development. But in earlier years the 
time sequence is not the chief consideration. This is 
because the child's historical sense is not yet ready 
for the concept of cause and effect at work to produce 
certain inevitable results in the lives of men or nations. 

The sequence in which certain kings reigned, or the 
order in which certain events took place, or in which 
certain books of the Bible were written is not the im- 



i 3 2 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

portant thing for early childhood. At this time the 
great object is to seize upon the event, the character 
or the incident, and make it real and vital; it is to bring 
the meaning of the lesson out of its past setting and 
attach it to the child's immediate present. 

Psychological organization. — It is the psychological 
organization of material that should obtain both in the 
curriculum as a whole and in the planning of the indi- 
vidual lessons. We must not think, however, that a 
psychological order of material necessarily makes it 
illogical. On the other hand, the arrangement of material 
that takes into account the child's needs is certain to 
make it more logical to him than any adult scheme or 
plan could do. That is most logical to any person which 
most completely fits into his particular system of thought 
and understanding. If we succeed in making our plan 
of presenting material to the child wholly psychological, 
therefore, we need not be concerned; all other questions 
of organization will take care of themselves, and the 
psychological will constantly tend to become logical. 

What is meant by a psychological method of arranging 
material for presentation has already been discussed 
(Chapter III). Suffice it to say here that it is simply 
planning the subject matter to fit the mind and needs of 
the child — arranging for the easiest and most natural 
mode of approach, securing the most immediate points 
of contact for interest and application, remembering 
all the time that the child speaks as a child, thinks as 
a child, understands as a child. 

Jesus' use of the psychological plan. — The 
teacher who seeks to master the spirit of the psycholog- 
ical presentation of religious material should study 
the teaching-method of Jesus. Always he came close 
to the life and experience of those he would impress; 



THE ORGANIZATION OF MATERIAL 133 

always he proceeds from the plane of the learner's 
experiences, understanding, and interests. Did he want 
to teach a great lesson about the different ways in 
which men receive truth into their lives? — "Behold a 
sower went forth to sow." Did he seek to explain 
the stupendous meaning and significance of the new 
kingdom of the spirit which he came to reveal? — "The 
kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed," 
or, "The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which 
a woman took and hid in three measures of meal," or, 
"The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which 
sowed good seed in his field." 

And with this simple, direct, psychological, homely 
mode of approach to great themes Jesus made his 
hearers understand vital lessons, and at the same time 
showed them how to apply the lessons to their own 
lives. So throughout all his teaching and preaching; 
the lesson of the talents, the prodigal son, the workers 
in the vineyard, the wedding feast, placing a little 
child in the midst of them — all these and many other 
concrete points of departure illustrate the highest 
degree of skill in the psychological use of material. 

ORGANIZATION OF THE CURRICULUM AS A WHOLE 

The material offered in the curriculum of our church 
schools is not, taking it in all its parts, as well organized 
as that in our public day schools. This is in part be- 
cause the material of religion is somewhat more diffi- 
cult to grade and arrange for the child than the ma- 
terial of arithmetic, geography, and other school sub- 
jects. But it is also because the church school has 
not fully kept pace with the progress in education of 
recent times. 

A century or two ago the day-school texts were not 



134 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

well graded and adapted to children; now, we have 
carefully graded systems of texts in all school subjects. 
While the logical and the chronological method of 
organization still holds a place in many of the public 
school texts, the psychological point of view, which 
considers the needs of the child first, is characteristic 
of all the better schoolbooks of the present. Just be- 
cause religion is more difficult to teach than grammar 
or history or arithmetic, we should plan with all the 
insight and skill at our command to prepare the re- 
ligious material for our children so that its arrange- 
ment will not suffer by comparison with day-school 
material. 

Three types of lesson material. — Material repre- 
senting three different types of organization and con- 
tent of curriculum material is now available and being 
used in our church schools: 

i. The Uniform Lessons, which are ungraded, and 
which give (with few minor exceptions) the same topics 
and material to all ages of pupils from the youngest 
children to adults. 

2. The Graded Lessons, which seek to adapt the topics 
and subject matter to the age and needs of the child, 
and which therefore present different material for the 
various grades or divisions of the school. These are 
usually printed in leaflet or pamphlet form. 

3. Real textbooks of religion which are based on the 
principles used in making day-school texts. The ma- 
terial is divided into chapters, each dealing with some 
theme or topic adapted to the age of the child, the 
lessons not being dated nor arranged to cover a certain 
cycle of subject matter as in the case of the regular 
lesson series. The books are printed and bound much 
the same as day-school texts. 



THE ORGANIZATION OF MATERIAL 135 

The uniform lessons. — Although many churches still 
employ the Uniform Lessons, we shall not hesitate to 
say that no church school is justified in this day of 
educational enlightenment in using a system of un- 
graded lessons. Such lessons are planned for adults. 
They ignore the needs of the child, and force upon 
him material for which he is in no sense ready, while 
at the same time omitting matter that he needs and is 
capable of understanding and using. For example, 
some of the topics which primary children, juniors, and 
all alike find in their ungraded lessons of current date 
are, man's fall, the atonement, regeneration, the city of 
God, faith — splendid topics all, but too strong meat for 
babes. 

Why should we thus ignore the educational progress 
of the age, starve our children spiritually, and hamper 
them in their religious development by this obsolete 
system of education which has been long since outgrown 
in the public schools? Why should we not ignore tra- 
dition, prejudice, and personal preference, where these 
are in the way, and let the needs of the child decide? 
Why should thousands of church schools to-day be 
using the Uniform Lessons? 

Some use them because they are cheaper; others 
because they always have used them and do not like 
the trouble and disarrangement of a change; others 
because of the doubtful theory of the inspiration that 
comes from having all the members of the family study- 
ing the same lesson at the same time (we do not expect 
all the family to read or study the same material in 
other lines); and perhaps others because they have 
not been accustomed to thinking of religious education 
following the same principles and laws as other edu- 
cation. But whatever the explanation of the use of 



136 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

the Uniform Lessons in our church schools in the past, 
let us now see to it that they give way to better ma- 
terial. Let us not be satisfied, even, when the ungraded 
uniform lessons are "improved"; they should not be 
improved, but discarded. 

Graded lessons. — A large and increasing number of 
our best church schools are now using some form of 
graded lesson material based on the topics supplied by 
the International Lesson Committee. Each great 
denomination has its own lesson writers, who take these 
topics and elaborate them into the graded lessons such 
as we know in the Berean Series, the Keystone Series, 
the Pilgrim Series, the Westminster Series, etc. All 
such lesson material, which seeks to adapt the material 
to the needs of the child as he progresses year by year 
from infancy to adulthood, is infinitely superior to any 
form of ungraded material. It is easier and more in- 
teresting for the child to learn, less difficult for the 
teacher to present, and its value in guiding spiritual 
development immeasurably greater. 

Some form of closely graded lessons is the only kind 
of material which should be used in our church schools; 
the children have the same need and the same right 
to material graded and prepared to meet their under- 
standing in religion as in language or in science. But 
when we employ graded lessons we must make sure 
that the child, and not the subject matter, is the basis of 
the grading. We must make certain that the writer of 
the lessons knows the mental grasp, the type of interests, 
the characteristic attitudes, and the social activities 
of the child at the different stages, and then arranges 
the material to meet these needs. We must not simply 
aim to cover so much biblical material, even if we 
select it as well as we may to come within the child's 



THE ORGANIZATION OF MATERIAL 137 

grasp; we must have his real religious needs, his re- 
ligious growth, and his spiritual development in mind, 
and provide for these. 

Adapting graded lessons to young children. — 
In the graded series of lessons now most commonly used 
in the church schools the material is, on the whole, 
fairly well selected to meet the needs of the beginners 
and the primary section. Interesting stories are told, 
and much nature material presented. The work is, 
of course, all presented to the pupils by the teacher, 
as the children cannot yet read. In some cases the 
stories used are undoubtedly too difficult, and not a 
few of them lack the elements of good story-telling. 

Yet the instruction usually centers about the topics 
most needed by the child at this time — the love and 
care of God both for our lives and in the world of nature 
about us; the Christ-child and his care for children; 
lessons of kindness, obedience and love in the home, etc. 
Because of this directness of appeal the child responds 
to the material and the teacher finds her task much 
easier and more fruitful than with the difficult topics 
of the ungraded lessons. 

Graded lessons not all well adapted to ages. — 
As the graded lessons pass on into the junior age, the 
adaptation of material is generally less successful than 
for the primary grades. The topics are based less on 
the interests and spiritual needs of the child, and more 
on the material. The lessons for the greater part con- 
sist of biblical material only, and are often too difficult 
for the child to be interested in them or to understand 
them. No coordinating principle relates the topics to 
each other, and the material consequently comes to 
the child in rather disconnected scraps. Too frequently 
this material, because it belongs to a later stage of 



138 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

development, is without any particular or direct bear- 
ing on the learner's experience, and hence not assimilated 
into his life. 

The remedy here is to use a larger proportion of story 
material, of biography, of lessons from nature, and of 
such gems of literature as carry a spiritual message suited 
to the child. The caution is to avoid over-intellectual- 
izing the child's religious instruction, and to make sure 
that we do not outrun his rate of development in the 
material we give him. The same principles should 
carry over into the intermediate, or preadolescence, age. 
The hero-worship stage is then at hand, and the lesson 
material should be arranged to meet the natural de- 
mand of the child for action and adventure. 

In planning a graded series of lessons it is not less 
important to meet the needs of the seniors, or adolescents, 
than of the younger pupils. This has not always been 
accomplished. Here again, as in the earlier years, the 
immediate interests and needs of the learner are to be 
the key to the planning of material. A series of unre- 
lated topics dealing with a distant time and civilization, 
with little or no application to the problems and in- 
terests that are now thronging upon the youth, will 
make small appeal to him. The youth's growing con- 
sciousness of social problems, his interest in a vocation, 
his increasing feeling of personal responsibility as a 
member of the family, the community, the church and 
the brotherhood of men are suggestions of the nature 
of the topics that should now form the foundation of 
religious study and instruction. 

It is possible that the forgetting of this simple fact 
in the planning of material for adolescent pupils is one 
chief reason for the tragic loss of interest in the Sunday 
school which so often occurs at the adolescent stage. 



THE ORGANIZATION OF MATERIAL 139 

Text books of religious material. — The text book 
type of religious material differs more in the organ- 
ization and arrangement of material than in the subject 
matter itself. The lessons are not based on a set cycle 
of biblical material, though, of course, such material 
is freely used. Usually one topic or theme is followed 
throughout the text, the number of lessons or chapters 
provided being intended for one year's work. The 
following titles of texts now in use suggest the nature 
of the subject matter: " God's Wonder World," "Heroes 
of Israel," "Heroic Lives," "The Story of Jesus," "The 
Making of a Nation," "Our Part in the World," "The 
Story of a Book," "The Manhood of the Master," 
"Problems of Boyhood," "Social Duties," "The Test- 
ing of a Nation's Ideals." 

Beyond question, the material we teach our children 
in religion should be organized and published as real 
books and not as paper-covered or unbound serial 
pamphlets. There is really no more reason why we 
should divide religious material up into lessons to be 
dated, and issued month by month, than why we should 
thus divide and issue material in geography, history, 
reading, or any other school subject. Children who 
are accustomed in day schools to well-made, well- 
bound books, with good paper and clear, readable 
print, cannot be expected to respond favorably to the 
ordinary lesson pamphlet. The child should be en- 
couraged and helped in the building of his own library 
of religious books, but this can hardly be done as long 
as his church-school material comes to him in tem- 
porary form, much of it less attractive on the mechanical 
side than the average advertising leaflet which so freely 
finds its unread way to the waste basket. 

Many of the Sunday school leaflets carry at the top 



140 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

(or the bottom) of the page an advertisement of the 
denominational lesson series— matter in which the 
child is not concerned, which injures the appearance 
of the page, and which lowers the dignity and value of 
the publication. And some lesson pamphlets are even 
disfigured with commercial advertisements, sometimes 
of articles of doubtful value, and always with the effect 
of lowering the tone of the subject matter to which it 
is attached. Religious material printed in worthy book 
form escapes these indignities. That textbooks in 
religion will cost more than the present cheap form of 
material is possible. But what matter! We are willing 
to supply our children with the texts needed in their 
day-school work; shall we not supply them with the 
books required for their training in religion? If the 
texts prove too much of a financial burden for the 
children or their parents, there is no reason why the 
church should not follow the example of the public 
school district and itself own the books, lending them 
for free use to the pupils. 

Guiding principles. — The principles for the organ- 
ization of the church-school curriculum are, then, clear. 
Its lessons should start with matter adapted to the 
youngest child. It should present a continuous series 
of steps providing material of broadening scope adapted 
to each age or stage from childhood to full maturity. 
Its order and arrangement should at all times be de- 
cided by the needs and development of the learner, 
and should make constant point of contact with his 
life and experience. It should be printed in attractive 
textbook form, the paper, type, illustrations, and bind- 
ing being equal to the best standards prevailing in 
public-school texts. In short, we should apply the 
same scientific and educational knowledge, a*nd the 



THE ORGANIZATION OF MATERIAL 141 

same business ability in preparing and issuing our 
religious material that we devote to this phase of general 
education. 

ORGANIZING THE DAILY LESSON MATERIAL 

The teacher's plan or organization of each lesson for 
presentation to the class in the recitation is a matter 
of supreme importance. Even the best and most expe- 
rienced teachers never reach the point where they do 
not need to prepare specifically for each recitation. 
No matter how complete the knowledge of the subject, 
nor how often one has taught it, there is always the 
necessity of fitting it directly to the needs and interests 
of the particular class before us. This preparation 
should result in a definitely worked out lesson plan 
which, though it may finally be modified to fit situa- 
tions as they arise in the class discussion, will neverthe- 
less serve as an outline of procedure for the recitation. 
Even the teachers' manual supplied with most of the 
lesson series cannot take the place of this definite, 
individual plan prepared by the teacher himself for 
his immediate class. 

The lesson plan. — The first step in arranging a 
lesson plan is to determine the range and amount of 
material which is to be presented to accomplish the 
aim of the class hour. This will include the lesson or 
story from the Bible, nature material, memory work, 
music, pictures or any other subject matter to be con- 
sidered. In determining this point the age of the chil- 
dren, the time available, and the nature of the subject 
must all be taken into account. It is a mistake to 
attempt more than can be done well, or to try to do so 
many things that the recitation is too much hurried 
to be interesting or profitable. 



142 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

The lesson plan should provide for a few chief points 
or topics, with the smaller points and the illustrations 
grouped under these. To have many topics receiving 
the same amount of emphasis in a lesson indicates poor 
organization. For example, in teaching the lesson of 
obedience from the Garden of Eden story the material 
may well be grouped under the following topics: i. The 
many good and beautiful things God had given Adam 
and Eve. 2. There was one thing only which they 
might not have. 3. Their disobedience in desiring and 
taking this one thing. 4. Their feeling of guilt and 
unhappiness which made them hide from God. Under 
these four general heads will come all the stories, illus- 
trations, and applications necessary to make the lesson 
very real to children. 

Small matters of large import. — Of course the par- 
ticular questions to be asked and the more immediate 
applications to be made must await the unfolding of 
the lesson discussion with the class. Good planning 
requires, however, that we have a set of pivotal ques- 
tions thought out and set down for our guidance; and 
also suggestions for illustrations and applications under 
the various topics. If expression work is to be used, 
this should be noted in its proper place, and provision 
made for carrying it out. In planning for older classes, 
reference should be made in the plan to special assign- 
ments to be made in books, magazines or any other 
material. 

Provision should be made in the plan for a sum- 
mary at the end of the lesson period, and for the making 
of the final impression which the class are to carry 
away with them. Nor must the assignment of the 
next lesson be forgotten. Probably no small propor- 
tion of the characteristic failure of pupils to prepare 



THE ORGANIZATION OF MATERIAL 143 

their lessons comes from lack of definite assignments 
showing the child just what he is expected to do, and 
how to do it. 

Details of a typical lesson plan. — Let us suppose 
that we are to teach the lesson of obedience from the 
story of Adam and Eve to children of early primary 
age. Our Lesson Plan might be something as follows: 

I. The Aim or Purpose of the Lesson — Obedience. 

1. Knowledge or information to be given the 

class — 

a. Of the Bible story itself. 

b. Of the fact that God requires obedience. 

c. That disobedience brings sorrow and 

punishment. 

d. That children owe obedience to parents 

and teachers. 

2. Attitudes, and feeling response to be sought. 

a. Interest in and liking for the Bible story. 

b. Appreciation of God's many gifts to his 

children. 

c. Desire to please God with obedience. 

d. Sorrow for acts of disobedience. 

e. Respect for authority of home, school 

and law. 

3. Applications to the child's life and conduct. 

a. Acts of obedience to God in being kind, 

cheerful, and helpful to others. 

b. Cheerful obedience in home and school, 

with no lagging nor ill nature. 

c. Prayer for forgiveness for any act of dis- 

obedience. 
II. Material or Subject Matter to be Presented. 

1 . The story of Adam and Eve in the Garden. 
The version of the story is important. The 
original from the Bible is too difficult. 
If the lesson material does not offer the 



144 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

story in satisfactory form, go to one of the 
many books of Bible stories and find a 
rendering suited to your class. Be able 
to tell the story well. 

2. Pictures of Adam and Eve in the Garden. 

Be sure the picture is interesting, well exe- 
cuted, and that it shows attractive and 
beautiful things. 

3. Prayer on obedience. 

The prayer to be brief and simple, asking 
God to help each one to obey him and to 
obey father and mother, and to forgive us 
when we do not obey. 
3. Music. 

If possible, the music may correlate with 
the thought of the lesson. If not, let it be 
devotional and adapted to the children in 
words and melody. 
5. Handwork or other form of expression ma- 
terial. 

Cutting and pasting pictures in notebooks; 
coloring, or other such work, to be done 
either in the classroom or at home. 
III. Mode of Procedure — the Presentation, or Instruction. 

1. Greetings to the class — opening prayer and 

song. 

2. Introduction of the lesson and telling of the 

story. 

3. Discussion, questions and illustrations to re- 

veal: 

o. The many beautiful gifts which God had 
given Adam and Eve, and which he 
gives us. 

b. How Adam and Eve were allowed to 
have everything except just one thing 
among many. Application of this 
thought to child's life at home, etc. 



THE ORGANIZATION OF MATERIAL 145 

c. How Adam and Eve yielded to tempta- 

tion and disobeyed. Practical appli- 
cation to child's life. 

d. How Adam and Eve felt ashamed and 

guilty after they had disobeyed God, 
and how they tried to hide from him. 
This can be made very real to children. 

e. How punishment follows disobedience. 
/. Why we must ask for forgiveness when 

we have been disobedient. 

4. Summary, or brief restatement of chief im- 

pressions to carry away, and of applications 
to be made in the week ahead by the chil- 
dren themselves. 

5. Closing prayer and song. 

Adapting the lesson plan to its uses. — It is, of 

course, evident that lesson plans can be made of all 
degrees of complexity and completeness. With a 
little practice the teacher can easily decide the kind 
of plan that best suits himself and his particular grade 
of work. On the one hand, the plan should not be so 
detailed as to become burdensome to follow in the 
lesson hour. On the other hand, it should not be so 
brief and sketchy as not to bring out the significant 
elements of the lesson. 

Different grades of pupils and different subjects will 
require different lesson plans. It is probable, however, 
that the three major heads of "Aims," "Material/' 
and "Mode of Procedure" will prove serviceable in 
all plan making. While the teacher should have his 
plan book at hand in the recitation, he must not become 
its slave, nor allow its use to kill spontaneity and re- 
sponsiveness in his teaching. Both the subject matter 
and the day's plan should be so well mastered that no 
more than an occasional glance at the details in the 



i 4 6 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

plan book will be required. Nothing must be allowed 
to come between the teacher's best personality and 
his class. 

i. Have you heard lectures, sermons, or lessons which 
were constructed after the haphazard plan? Were they 
easy to follow and to remember? Did they develop a line 
of thought in a successful way? Do you think that the 
haphazard type of organization indicates either lack of 
preparation or lack of ability ? 

2. Do you definitely try to organize your daily lesson 
material on a psychological plan? How can you tell 
whether you have succeeded ? Are you close enough to the 
minds and hearts of your pupils so that you are able to 
judge quite accurately the best mode of approach in plan- 
ning a lesson? 

3. Do you study the lesson helps provided with your 
lesson material? Do you find them helpful? If you find 
that they are not well adapted to your particular class, 
have you the ability to make the suggestions over to fit 
your class? 

4. Do you make a reasonably complete and wholly 
definite lesson plan for each lesson? Do you keep a plan 
book, so that you may be able to look back at any time and 
see just what devices you have used ? If you have not done 
this, will you not start the practice now? 

5. What type of lesson material do you use, uniform, 
graded, or textbook? Are you acquainted with other 
series or material for the same grades? Would it not be 
worth your while to secure supplemental material of such 
kinds? 

6. Do you read a journal of Sunday school method deal- 
ing with problems of your grade of teaching? If day- 
school teachers find it worth while to read professional 
journals, do not church-school teachers need their help as 
much? If you do not know what journals to secure, your 
pastor can advise you. 



THE ORGANIZATION OF MATERIAL 147 
FOR FURTHER READING 

Strayer, A Brief Course in the Teaching Process, chap- 
ter XVI. 

Betts, Class Room Method and Management, chapter 
VIII. 

Earhart, Types of Teaching. 



CHAPTER IX 
THE TECHNIQUE OF TEACHING 

Our teaching must be made to stick. None but 
lasting impressions possess permanent value. The ser- 
mons, the lectures, the lessons that we remember and 
later dwell upon are the ones that finally are built into 
our lives and that shape our thinking and acting. Im- 
pressions that touch only the outer surfaces of the 
mind are no more lasting than writing traced on the 
sand. Truths that are but dimly felt or but partially 
grasped soon fade away, leaving little more effect than 
the shadows which are thrown on the picture screen. 

Especially do these facts hold for the teacher in the 
church-school class. For the impressions made in the 
church-school lesson hour bear a larger proportion to 
the entire result than in the public school. This is 
because of the nature of the subject we teach, and also 
because of the fact that most of our pupils come to 
the class with little or no previous study on the lesson 
material. This leaves them almost completely dependent 
on the recitation itself for the actual results of their 
church-school attendance. The responsibility thus 
placed upon the teacher is correspondingly great, and 
requires unusual devotion and skill. 

ATTENTION TO KEY 

The things that impress us, the things that we re- 
member and apply, are the things to which we have 
attended wholly and completely. The mind may be 
thought of as a stream of energy. There is only so much 

148 



THE TECHNIQUE OF TEACHING 149 

volume, so much force that can be brought to bear 
upon the work in hand. In attention the mind's energy 
is piled up in a "wave" on the problem occupying our 
thought, and results follow as they cannot if the stream 
of mental energy flows at a dead level from lack of 
concentration. 

Or, again, the mind's energy may be likened to the 
energy of sunlight as it falls in a flood through the 
window upon our desk. This diffuse sunlight will 
brighten the desk top and slightly increase its tem- 
perature, but no striking effects are seen. But now 
take this same anount of sun energy and, passing it 
through a lens, focus it on a small spot on the desk 
top — and the wood bursts almost at once into flame. 
What diffuse energy coming from the sun could never 
do, concentrated energy easily and quickly accomplished. 
Attention is to the mind's energy what the lens is to 
the sun's energy. It gathers the mental power into a 
focus on the lesson to be learned or the truth to be 
mastered, and the concentrated energy of the mind 
readily accomplishes results that would be impossible 
with the mental energy scattered or not directed to the 
one thing under consideration. The teacher's first and 
most persistent problem in the recitation is, therefore, to 
gain and hold the highest possible degree of attention. 

Three types of appeal to attention. — We are told 
that there are three kinds of attention, though this is 
not strictly true. There is really only one kind of 
attention, for attention is but the concentration of the 
mind's energy on one object or thought. What is meant 
is that there are three different ways of securing or 
appealing to attention. Each type of attention is named 
in accordance with the kind of compulsion or appeal 
necessary to command it, as follows: 



150 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

i. Involuntary attention, or attention that is de- 
manded of us by some sudden or startling stimulus, 
as the stroke of a bell, the whistle of a train, an aching 
tooth, the teacher rapping on the desk with a ruler. 

2. Nonvoluntary, or spontaneous, attention that we 
give easily and naturally, with no effort of self-com- 
pulsion. This kind of attention is compelled by interest, 
and, when left unhindered, will be guided by the nature 
of our interest. 

3. Voluntary attention, or attention that is com- 
pelled by effort and power of will, and thereby required 
to concern itself with some particular object of thought 
when the mind's pull or desire is in another direction. 

How each type of attention works.— The first of 
these types of attention, the involuntary, has so little 
place in education that we shall not need to discuss 
it here. The teacher who raps the desk or taps the 
bell to secure attention which should come from interest 
must remember that in such case the attention is given 
to the stimulus, that is, to the signal, and not to the 
lesson, and this very fact makes all such efforts to 
secure attention a distraction in themselves. 

The spontaneous, or nonvoluntary, attention that 
arises from interest is the basis on which all true edu- 
cation and training must be founded. The mind, and 
especially the child's mind, is so constituted that its 
full power is not brought to bear except under the 
stimulus and compulsion of interest. It is the story 
which is so entrancing that we cannot tear ourself away 
from it, the game which is so exciting as to cause us to 
forget all else in watching it, the lecture or sermon 
which is so interesting that we are absorbed in listen- 
ing to it, that claims our best thought and comprehen- 
sion. It is when our mind's powers are thus driven 



THE TECHNIQUE OF TEACHING 151 

by a tidal wave of interest that we are at our best, and 
that we receive and register the lasting impressions 
which become a part of our mental equipment and 
character. 

This does not mean, however, that there is no place 
for voluntary attention in the child's training. For not 
everything can be made so inviting that the appeal 
will at all times bring about the concentration necessary. 
And in any case a part of the child's education is to 
learn self-direction, self-compulsion, and self-control. 
There are many occasions when the interest is not 
sufficient to hold attention steady to the task in hand; 
it is at this point that voluntary attention should come 
in to add its help to provide the required effort and 
concentration. There are many circumstances under 
which interest will secure a moderate amount of appli- 
cation of mental energy to the task, but where the 
will should step in and command an additional supply 
of effort, and so attain full instead of partial results. 

Children should, therefore, be trained to give atten- 
tion. They should be taught to take and maintain 
the attitude of attention throughout the lesson period, 
and not be allowed to become listless or troublesome 
the moment their interest is not held to the highest 
pitch. 

THE APPEAL TO INTEREST 

Sometimes we speak of "arousing the child's interest," 
or of "creating an interest" in a topic we are teaching. 
Strictly speaking, this is incorrect. The child's in- 
terest, when rightly appealed to, does not have to be 
"aroused," nor does interest have to be "created." 

Every normal child is naturally alert, curious, in- 
terested in what concerns him. Who has not taken a 



iS2 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

child for a walk or gone with a group of children on an 
excursion, and been amazed at their capacity for in- 
terest in every object about them and for attention 
to an endless chain of impressions from their varied 
environment? Who has not observed children in a 
game, and noted their complete absorption in its changing 
aspects? Who has not called a child from an interest- 
ing tale in a book he was reading, and found that it 
required the combined force of our authority and the 
child's will to break the spell of his interest and sep- 
arate him from his book? Interest is always ready to 
flow in resistless current if we can but find the right 
channel and a way to set it free. When we find our 
class uninterested, therefore, we must first of all seek 
the explanation not in the children, but in ourselves, 
our methods, or the matter we teach. 

Interest depends on comprehension. — First of all 
we must remember that interest never attaches to what 
the mind does not grasp. Go yourself and listen to the 
technical lecture you do not understand, or try to read 
the book that deals with matters concerning which 
you have no information; then apply the results of 
your experience to the case of the child. The matter 
we teach the child must have sufficient connection with 
his own experience, be sufficiently close to the things 
he knows and cares about, so that he has a basis on 
which to comprehend them. The new must be related 
to something old and familiar in the mind to meet a 
warm welcome. 

If we would secure the child's interest, we must 
make certain of a "point of contact" in his own life 
and meet him on the plane of his own experience. God 
smiling in the sunshine, making the flowers grow or 
whispering in the breeze is closer to the child than God 



THE TECHNIQUE OF TEACHING 153 

as "Creator." God protecting and watching over the 
child timid and afraid in the dark is more real than 
God in his heaven as " protector. " We must remember 
that not what we feel is of value, but what the child feels 
is of value is what will appeal to his interest and atten- 
tion. And no exertion or agonizing on our part will 
create interest in the child in matters for which his 
own understanding and experience have not fitted him. 
For example, probably no child is ever interested in 
learning the church catechism or Bible verses which 
we prize so highly, but which he can not understand 
nor apply; he may be interested in a prize to be had 
at the end of the learning, but in this case the interest 
is in the reward and not in the matter learned. Empty 
words devoid of meaning never fire interest nor kindle 
enthusiasm. 

Interest attaches to action. — Children are interested 
more in action, deeds, and events than in motives, 
reasons, and explanations. They care more for the 
uses to which objects are to be put than for the objects 
themselves. 

No boy is interested in a bicycle chiefly as an example 
of mechanical skill, but, rather, as a means of loco- 
motion. No girl is interested in dolls just as dolls, 
nor as a product of the toy maker's skill, but to play 
with. It is this quality that makes children respond 
to the story, for the story deals with action instead of 
with explanation and description. In the story there 
is life and movement, and not reasoning and mere 
assertion. The story presents the lesson in terms of 
deeds and events, instead of by means of abstract 
statement and formal conclusion. 

This principle carries over to the child's own par- 
ticipation. Everyone is most interested in that in 



154 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

which he has an active part. The meeting in which we 
presided or made a speech or presented a report is to 
us a more interesting meeting than one in which we 
were a silent auditor. To the child, personal response 
is even more necessary. No small part of the reason 
why the child "learns by doing' ' is that he is interested 
in doing as he is not interested in mere listening. All 
good teaching will therefore appeal to interest through 
providing the fullest possible opportunity for the child 
to have an important share in the lesson. And this 
part must be something which to the child is worth 
doing, and not, for example, an oral memory drill on 
words meaningless to the pupil, nor "expression" work 
of a kind that lacks purpose and action. There are 
always real things to be done if the lesson is vital — 
personal experiences to be recounted, special assign- 
ments to be reported upon, maps to be drawn or re- 
modeled, specimens of flowers or plants to be secured, 
character parts to be represented in the story, a bit 
of history to be looked up, prayers to be said, songs 
to be sung, or a hundred other things done which will 
appeal to the interest and at the same time fix the 
points of the lesson. 

Interest requires variety and change. — Interest 
attaches to the new, provided the new is sufficiently 
related to the fund of experience already on hand so 
that it is fully grasped and understood. While there 
are certain matters, such as marching, handling sup- 
plies, etc., in the recitation which should be done the 
same way each time so that they may become habit 
and routine, yet there is a wide range of variety possi- 
ble in much of the procedure. 

The lessons should not be conducted always in the 
same way. One recitation may consist chiefly of dis- 



THE TECHNIQUE OF TEACHING 155 

cussion, with question and answer between teacher 
and class. Another may be given largely to reports 
on special assignments, with the teacher's comments 
to broaden and apply the points. Another may take 
the form of stories told and illustrations given by the 
teacher, or of stories retold by the class from former 
lessons. The great thing is to secure change and variety 
without losing sight of the real aims of the lesson, and 
to plan for a pleasant surprise now and then without 
lowering the value of the instruction. 

Interest is contagious. — Every observing teacher has 
learned that interest is contagious. An interested and 
enthusiastic teacher is seldom troubled by lack of in- 
terest and attention on the part of the class. Nor, on 
the other hand, will interest and attention continue 
on the part of the class if confronted by a mechanical 
and lifeless teacher. The teacher is the model uncon- 
sciously accepted and responded to by his class. He 
leads the way in interest and enthusiasm. Nor will 
any sham or pretense serve. The interest must be 
real and deep. Even young children quickly sense any 
make-believe enthusiasm or vivacity on the part of 
the teacher, and their ardor immediately cools. 

Children's typical interests have their birth, ripen 
to full strength, and fade away by certain broad stages. 
What will appeal to the child of five will not appeal 
to the child of ten, and will secure no response from 
the youth of fifteen. Space will not permit even an out- 
line of these interest-stages here, but genetic psychology 
has carefully mapped them out and their nature and 
order of development should be studied by every teacher. 

FREEDOM FROM DISTRACTIONS 

There is no possibility of securing good results from 



156 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

a lesson period constantly broken in upon by distrac- 
tions. The mind cannot do its best work if the atten- 
tion is diverted every few moments from the train of 
thought, requiring a new start every now and then. 
Every teacher has had the experience of the sudden 
drop in interest and concentration that has come from 
some interruption, and the impossibility of bringing the 
class back to the former level after the break. The 
loss in a recitation disturbed by distractions is compar- 
able to the loss of power and efficiency in stopping a 
train of cars every half mile throughout its run instead 
of allowing it an unbroken trip. Careful planning and 
good management can eliminate many of the distrac- 
tions common to the church school lesson hour. 

Distractions from classes reciting together. — 
The class should have a room or space for its own sole 
use, and not be compelled to recite in a large room 
occupied by several other classes. The older Chinese 
method of education was to have each pupil study his 
lesson aloud, each seeking to drown out the confusion 
by the force of his voice. Many of our church schools 
of the present day remind one of this ancient method. 
The church building being planned primarily for adults, 
not enough classrooms are provided for the children, 
and it is a common thing to find half a dozen classes 
grouped in the one room, each constantly distracted 
by the sights and sounds that so insistently appeal to 
the senses. It is wholly impossible to do really good 
teaching under such conditions. 

Every church building should provide classrooms for 
teaching its children. If these cannot be had in the 
original edifice, an addition should be made of a special 
school building. As a last resort, a system of curtains 
or movable partitions should be provided which will 



THE TECHNIQUE OF TEACHING 157 

isolate each class from every other class, and thereby 
save at least the visual distractions and perhaps a part 
of the auditory distractions. To fail to do this is to 
cultivate in the child a habit of inattention to the 
lesson, and to kill his interest in the church school and 
its work because of its failure to impress him or attract 
his loyalty. 

Planning routine to prevent distractions. — Not 
infrequently a wholly unnecessary distraction is caused 
by a poorly planned method of handling certain routine 
matters. The writer recently observed a junior class 
get under way in what promised to be a very interest- 
ing and profitable lesson. They had an attractive lesson 
theme, a good teacher, a separate classroom, and seemed 
to be mentally alert. Soon after the lesson had got 
well started an officer appeared at the door with an 
envelope for the collection, and the story was stopped 
to pass the envelope around the class. It was not 
possible after this interruption to pick up the thread 
of the lesson without some loss of interest, but the 
teacher was skillful and did her best. She soon had the 
attention of the class again and the lesson was moving 
along toward its most interesting part and the practical 
application. But just at the most critical moment 
another interruption occurred; the secretary came in 
with the papers for the class and counted out the neces- 
sary supply while the class looked on. It was impossible 
now to catch up the current of interest again, but the 
teacher tried. Once more she was interrupted, however, 
this time by a note containing some announcement that 
had been overlooked in the opening exercises! 

All such interruptions as these indicate mismanage- 
ment and a serious lack of foresight. The fault is not 
wholly with the teacher, but also with the policy and 



158 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

organization of the school as a whole. The remedy is 
for both officers and teachers to use the same business 
sense and ability in running the church school that they 
would apply to any other concern. The collection can 
be taken at the beginning of the lesson period. The 
papers and lesson material can be in the classroom or 
in the teacher's hands before the class assembles, and 
not require distribution during the lesson period. In 
short, all matters of routine can be so carefully fore- 
seen and provided for that the class will be wholly free 
from all unnecessary distractions from such sources. 

Mischief and disorder. — An especially difficult kind 
of distraction to control is the tendency to restlessness, 
mischief, and misbehavior which prevails in certain 
classes or on the part of an occasional pupil. Pupils 
sometimes feel that the teacher in the church school 
does not possess the same authority as that exercised 
by the public-school teacher, and so take advantage 
of this fact. The first safeguard against disorder in the 
class is, of course, to secure the interest and loyalty 
of the members. The ideal is for the children to be 
attentive, respectful, and well behaved, not because 
they are required to, but because their sense of duty 
and pride and their interest in the work leads them to 
this kind of conduct. It is not possible, however, con- 
tinuously to reach this ideal with all children. There 
will be occasional cases of tendency to disorder, and 
the spirit of mischief will sometimes take possession 
of a class whose conduct is otherwise good. 

Whenever it becomes necessary, the teacher should 
not hesitate to take a positive stand for order and quiet 
in the class. All inattention is contagious. A small 
center of disturbance can easily spread until it results 
in a whole storm of disorder. Mischief grows through 



THE TECHNIQUE OF TEACHING 159 

the power of suggestion, and a small beginning may 
soon involve a whole class. There is no place for a 
spirit of irreverence and boisterousness in the church 
school, and the teacher must have for one of his first 
principles the maintenance of good conduct in his 
classroom. No one can tell any teacher just how this 
is to be achieved in individual cases, but it must be 
done. And the teacher who cannot win control over 
his class would better surrender it to another who 
has more of the quality of leadership or mastery in his 
make-up, for no worthy, lasting religious impressions 
can be given to noisy, boisterous, and inattentive children. 

Distractions by the teacher. — Strange as it may 
seem, the teacher may himself be a distraction in the 
classroom. Any striking mannerism, any peculiarity 
of manner or carriage, extreme types of dress, or any 
personal quality that attracts attention to itself is a 
distraction to the class. One teacher may have a very 
loud or ill-modulated voice; another may speak too low 
to be heard without too much effort; another may fail 
to articulate clearly. Whatever attracts attention to 
the speech itself draws attention away from the thought 
back of the speech and hinders the listener from giving 
his full powers to the lesson. 

A distracting habit on the part of some teachers is 
to walk back and forth before the class, or to assume 
awkward postures in standing or sitting before the 
class, or nervously to ringer a book or some object held 
in the hands. All these may seem like small things, 
but success or failure often depends upon a conjunction 
of many small things, each of which in itself may seem 
unimportant. It is often "the little foxes that spoil 
the vines." 

Avoiding physical distractions. — In the church 



160 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

school, as in the public school, the physical conditions 
surrounding the recitation should be made as favorable 
as possible. Not infrequently the children are placed 
for their lesson hour in seats that were intended for 
adults, and which are extremely uncomfortable for 
smaller persons. The children's feet do not touch the 
floor, and their backs can not secure a support; weari- 
ness, wriggling and unrest are sure to follow. Some- 
times the ventilation of the classroom is bad, and the 
foul air breathed on one Sunday is carefully shut in 
for use the next. Basement rooms are not seldom 
damp, or they have a bad odor, or the lighting is un- 
satisfactory, or the walls are streaked, dim and unin- 
viting. If such things seem relatively unimportant, we 
must remember that the child's spiritual life is closely 
tied up with the whole range of his experiences, and 
that such things as lack of oxygen in the classroom, 
tired legs whose feet can not touch the floor, eyes offended 
by unloveliness, or nostrils assailed by unpleasant odors 
may get in the way of the soul's development. Our 
churches should not rest satisfied until children in the 
church schools work under as hygienic and as pleasant 
conditions as obtain in the best of our public schools. 

DANGER POINTS IN INSTRUCTION 

It is a well-known law in pedagogy that negatives 
are not often inspiring, and that to hold before one 
his mistakes is not always the best way of helping him 
avoid them. Along with the positive principles which 
show what we should do, however, it is well occasionally 
to note a few of the danger points most commonly 
met in the classroom. 

Lack of definiteness. — This may take the form of 
lack of definiteness of aim or purpose. We may merely 



THE TECHNIQUE OF TEACHING 161 

"hear" the recitation, or ask the stock questions fur- 
nished in the lesson helps, or allow the discussion to 
wander where it will, or permit aimless arguing or dis- 
puting on questions that cannot be decided and that 
in any case possess no real significance. 

Indefiniteness may take the direction of failure to 
carry the thoughts of the lesson through to their final 
meaning and application, so that there is no vital con- 
nection made between the lesson truths and the lives 
of those we teach. Or we may be indefinite in our 
interpretation of the moral and religious values in- 
herent in the lesson, and so fail to make a sharp and 
definite impression of understanding and conviction on 
our pupils. Our teaching must be clear-cut and pos- 
itive without being narrowly dogmatic or opinionated. 
The truth we present must have an edge, so that it 
may cleave its way into the heart and mind of the 
learner. 

Dead levels. — We need to avoid dead levels in our 
teaching. This danger arises from lack of mental 
perspective. It comes from presenting all the points 
of a lesson on the same plane of emphasis, with a failure 
to distinguish between the important and the unim- 
portant. Minor details and incidental aspects of the 
topic often receive the same degree of stress that is 
given to more important points. This results in a 
state of monotonous plodding through so much ma- 
terial without responding to its varying shades of 
meaning and value. Not only does this type of teach- 
ing fail to lodge in the mind of the pupil the larger and 
more important truths which ought to become a per- 
manent part of his mental equipment, but it also fails 
to train pupils how themselves to pick out and appro- 
priate the significant parts of the lesson material. It 



i6 2 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

does not develop the sense of value for lesson truths 
which should be trained through the work of the lesson 
hour. Each lesson should seek to impress and apply 
a few important truths, and everything else should be 
made to work to this end. The points we would have 
our pupils remember, think about and act upon we 
must be able to make stand out above all other aspects 
of the lesson; they must not, for want of emphasis, 
be lost in a mass of irrelevant or monotonous material 
of little value. 

Lack of movement in recitation. — Some recitations 
suffer from slowness of movement of the thought and 
plan of the lesson. We sometimes say of a book or a 
play or a sermon that it was "slow." This is equiv- 
alent to saying that the book or play or sermon lacks 
movement; it dallies by the way, and has unnecessary 
breaks in its continuity, or is slow in its action. The 
same principle applies in the recitation. Pauses that 
are occupied with thought or meditation are not, of 
course, wasted; they may even be the very best part 
of the lesson period. But the rather empty lapses which 
occur for no reason except that the teacher lacks readi- 
ness and preparation, and does not quite know at 
every moment just what he is to do next, or what topic 
should at this moment come in — it is such awkward 
and meaningless breaks as these that spoil the con- 
tinuity of thought and interest and result in boredom. 
We must remember that every pause or interval of 
mere empty waiting without expectancy, or without 
some worthy thought occupying the mind, is a waste 
of energy, time, and opportunity, and also a training 
in inattention. 

Low standards. — The acceptance of low standards of 
preparation and response in the recitation is fatal to 



THE TECHNIQUE OF TEACHING 163 

high-grade work and results. If it comes to be ex- 
pected and taken as a matter of course both by teacher 
and pupils that children shall come to the class from 
week to week with no previous study on the lesson, 
then this is precisely what they will do. The standards 
of the class should make it impossible that continual 
failure to prepare or recite shall be accepted as the 
natural and expected thing, or treated with a spirit 
of levity. The lesson hour is the very heart and center 
of the school work, and failure here means a breakdown 
of the whole system. The standards of teacher and 
class should be such that probable failure to do one's 
part in the recitation shall be looked forward to by 
the child with some apprehension and looked back upon 
with some regret if not humiliation. In order to main- 
tain high standards of preparation the cooperation of 
the home must be secured, at least for the younger 
children, and parents must help the child wisely and 
sympathetically in the study of the lesson. 

1. To what extent are you able to hold the attention of 
your pupils in the recitation ? Is their attention ready, or 
do you have to work hard to get it ? Are there any particu- 
lar ones who are less attentive than the rest ? If so, can you 
discover the reason ? The remedy ? 

2 . To what extent do you find it necessary to appeal to 
involuntary attention? If you have to make such an ap- 
peal do you seek at once to make interest take hold to re- 
tain the attention? 

3. What measures are you using to train your pupils in 
the giving of voluntary attention when this type is re- 
quired ? When is voluntary attention required ? 

4. How completely are your pupils usually interested in 
the lessons ? As the interest varies from time to time, are 
you studying the matter to discover the secret of interest 
on their part. In so far as interest fails, which of the fac- 



i6 4 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

tors discussed in the section on interest in this chapter are 
related to the failure ? Are there still other causes not men- 
tioned in this chapter? 

5. What distractions are most common in your class? 
Can you discover the cause? The remedy? Do you have 
any unruly pupils? If so, have you done your best to win 
to attention and interest? Have you the force and de- 
cision necessary to bring the class well under control? 

6. What do you consider your chief danger points in 
teaching? Would it be worth while for you to have some 
sympathetic teacher friend visit your class while you teach, 
and then later talk over with you the points in which you 
could improve? 

FOR FURTHER READING 

Bagley, Class Room Management. 
Betts, The Recitation. 
Maxwell, The Observation of Teaching. 
Strayer and Norsworthy, How to Teach. 
Weigle, The Pupil and the Teacher. 



CHAPTER X 
MAKING TRUTH VIVID 

Life is a great unbreakable unity. Thought, feel- 
ing, and action belong together, and to leave out one 
destroys the quality and significance of all. Religious 
growth and development involve the same mental 
powers that are used in the other affairs of life. The 
child's training in religion can advance no faster than 
the expansion of his grasp of thought and comprehension, 
the deepening of his emotions, and the strengthening 
of his will. 

It follows from this that religious instruction must 
call for and use the same activities of mind that are 
called for in other phases of education. Not only must 
the feelings be reached and the emotions stirred, but 
the child must be taught to think in his religion. Not 
only must trust and faith be grounded, but these must 
be made intelligent. Not only must the spirit of wor- 
ship be cultivated, but the child must know Whom 
and why he worships. Not only must loyalties be 
secured, but these must grow out of a realization of the 
cost and worth of the cause or object to which loyalty 
attaches. Religious teaching must therefore appeal to 
the whole mind. Besides appealing to the emotions and 
will it must make use of and train the power of thought, 
of imagination, of memory; it must through their agency 
make truth vivid, real, and lasting, and so lay the 
foundation for spiritual feeling and devotion. 

LEARNING TO THINK IN RELIGION 

Much has been gained in teaching religion when we 

X63 



166 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

have brought the child to see that understanding, reason, 
and common sense are as necessary and as possible here 
as in other fields of learning. This does not mean that 
there are not many things in religion that are beyond 
the grasp and comprehension of even the greatest 
minds, to say nothing of the undeveloped mind of the 
child. It means, rather, that where we fail to grasp 
or understand it is because of the bigness of the prob- 
lem, or because of its unknowableness, and not because 
its solution violates the laws of thought and reason. 

The reign of law, the inexorable working of cause 
and effect, and the application of reason to religious 
matters should be conveyed to the child in his earliest 
impressions of religion. For example, the child has 
learned a valuable lesson when he has comprehended 
that God asks obedience of his children, not just for 
the sake of compelling obedience, but because obe- 
dience to God's law is the only way to happy and 
successful living. The youth has grasped a great truth 
when it becomes clear to his understanding that Jesus 
said, "To him that hath shall be given," not from 
any failure to sympathize with the one who might be 
short in his share, but because this is the great and funda- 
mental law of being to which even Jesus himself was 
subject; and that when Jesus said, "Whatsoever a man 
soweth, that shall he also reap," he was not exacting 
an arbitrary penalty, but expressing the inevitable 
working of a great law. The boy who defined faith as 
"believing something you know can't be true" had 
been badly taught concerning faith. 

Religious truth does not contradict reason. — 
To begin with, while all of us come to believe many 
things that we cannot fully understand, not even 
the child should be asked to believe what plainly 



MAKING TRUTH VIVID 167 

contradicts common sense and so puts too great 
a strain on credulity. In a certain Sunday school 
class the lesson was about Peter going up on the house- 
top to pray, and the vision that befell him there. This 
class of boys, living in a small village, had had 
no experience with any kind of housetop except 
that formed of a sharply sloping roof. Therefore 
the story looked improbable to them, and one 
boy asked how Peter could sleep up on the roof 
and keep from falling off. The teacher, also unin- 
formed concerning the flat roofs of Oriental houses, 
answered, "John, you must remember that with God 
all things are possible.' ' And John had that day had 
the seeds of skepticism planted in his inquiring mind. 
Another teacher, thinking to allay any tendency on 
the part of his class to question the literal accuracy 
of the story of Jonah and the whale, said, "This story 
is in the Bible, and we must believe it, for whatever 
is in the Bible is true; and if the Bible were to say 
that Jonah swallowed the whale that would be true, 
and we would have to believe that also." But who 
can doubt that, with boys and girls trained in the 
schools and by their contact with life itself to think, 
such an invitation to lay aside all reason and common 
sense can do other in the long run than to weaken 
confidence in the Bible, and so lessen the significance 
of many of its beautiful lessons? 

True thinking about Bible truths. — What, then, 
shall we teach the child about the literalness of the 
Bible? Nothing. This is not a question for childhood. 
The Bible should be brought to the child in the same 
spirit as any other book, except with a deep spirit of 
reverence and appreciation not due other books. Parts 
of the Bible are plainly history, and as accurate as 



168 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

history of other kinds is. Other parts are accounts 
of the lives of people, and the descriptions are wonder- 
fully vivid and true to life. Other parts are plainly 
poetry, and should be read and interpreted as poetry. 
Other parts are clearly the stories and legends current 
in the days when the ac counts were written, and should 
be read as other stories and legends are read. The 
great question is not the problem of the literal or the 
figurative nature of the truth, but the problem of dis- 
covering for the child the rich nugget of spiritual wisdom 
which is always there. 

When the young child first hears the entrancing 
Bible stories he does not think anything about their 
literalness; he only enjoys, and perhaps dimly senses 
the hidden lesson or truth they contain. This is as it 
should be. Later, when thought, judgment, and dis- 
crimination are developing and beginning to play their 
part in the expanding mind, questions are sure to arise 
at certain points. This is also as it should be. 

When such questions arise let us meet them frankly 
and wisely. Let us have the spiritual vision and the 
reverence for truth that will enable us, for example, 
to show the child how the servants of God in those 
ancient times used the bold, picturesque figure of " feath- 
ers" and " wings" to express the brooding love and 
care of God; how they told the wonderful story of 
God's creation of the world in the most beautiful ac- 
count they could conceive; how they showed forth 
God's care for his children, his companionship with 
them, and man's tendency to sin and disobedience by 
one of the most beautiful stories ever written, this 
story having its scene laid in the garden of Eden; how 
these writers always set down what they believed to 
be true, and how, though they might sometimes have 



MAKING TRUTH VIVID 169 

been mistaken as to the actual facts, they never missed 
presenting the great lesson or deep spiritual truth that 
God would have us know. 

Protecting the child against intellectual difficul- 
ties. — Children taught the Bible in this reasonable but 
reverent way will be saved many intellectual difficulties 
as they grow older. Their reverence and respect for 
the Bible will never suffer from the necessity of at- 
tempting to force their faith to accept what their in- 
tellect contradicts. They will not be troubled by the 
grave doubts and misgivings which attack so many 
adolescents during the time when they are working 
out their mental and spiritual adjustment to the new 
world of individual responsibility which they have 
discovered. They will, without strain or questioning, 
come to accept the Bible for what it is — the great 
Source Book of spiritual wisdom, its pages bearing the 
imprint of divine inspiration and guidance, and also 
of human imperfections and greatness. 

The developing child should, therefore, be encouraged 
to use his reason, his thought, his judgment and dis- 
crimination in his study of religion precisely as in other 
things. His questions should never be ignored, nor 
suppressed, nor treated as something unworthy and 
sinful. The doubts, even, which are somewhat char- 
acteristic of a stage of adolescent reconstruction, may 
be made the stepping-stone to higher reaches of faith 
and understanding. 

The youth who went to his pastor with certain ques- 
tionings and doubts, and who was told that these were 
"the promptings of Satan," and that they "must not 
be dwelt upon, but resolutely be put out of the mind," 
was not fairly nor honestly treated by one from whom 
he had a right to expect wiser guidance. He returned 



170 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

from the interview rebellious and bitter, and it was 
with much spiritual agony and sweating of blood that 
he fought his own way through to a solution which 
ought to have been made easy for him by wise enlight- 
enment and sympathetic counsel. 

Reverent seekers after truth. — Religion requires 
the mind at its best. There is nothing about religion 
that will not bear full thought and investigation. We 
are not asked to lay aside any part of our powers, can 
not lay any part of them aside, if we would attain to 
full religious growth and stature. Let us therefore 
train our children to think as they study religion. Let 
us lead them to ask and inquire. Let us train them to 
investigate and test. Let us teach them that they 
never need be afraid of truth, since no bit of truth ever 
conflicts with or contradicts any other truth; let us 
rather encourage them reverently and with open hearts 
and minds diligently to seek the truth, and then dare 
to follow where it leads. 

THE APPEAL TO IMAGINATION 

Imagination, the power of the mind that pictures 
and makes real, is a key to vivid and lasting impres- 
sions. Unless the imagination recreates the scenes 
described in the story, or vivifies the events of the 
lesson, they will have little meaning to the child and 
appeal but little to his interest. 

It is imagination that enables its possessor to take 
the images suggested in the account of a battle and 
build them together into the mass of struggling soldiers, 
roaring cannon, whistling bullets, and bursting shells. 
It is imagination that makes it possible while reading 
the words of the poem to construct the picture which 
was in the mind of the author as he wrote "The Village 



MAKING TRUTH VIVID 171 

Blacksmith," the twenty-third psalm, or "Snowbound," 
and thereby enables the reader himself to take part 
in the throbbing scenes of life and action. Without 
imagination one may repeat the words which describe 
an act or an event, may even commit them to memory 
or pass an examination upon them, but the living 
reality will forever escape him. It is imagination that 
will save the beautiful stories and narratives of the 
Bible from being so many dead words, without appeal 
to the child. 

Imagination required in the study of religion. — 
In the teaching of religion we are especially dependent 
on the child's use of his imagination. With younger 
children the instruction largely takes the form of stories, 
which must be appropriated and understood through the 
imagination or not at all. The whole Bible account 
deals with people, places, and events distant in time 
and strange to the child in manner of life and customs. 
The Bible itself abounds in pictorial descriptions. The 
missionary enterprises of the church lead into strange 
lands and introduce strange people. The study of 
the lives and characters of great men and women and 
their deeds of service in our own land takes the child 
out of the range of his own immediate observation and 
experience. The understanding of God and of Jesus 
— all of these things lose in significance or are in large 
degree incomprehensible unless approached with a vivid 
and glowing imagination. 

Many older persons confess that the Bible times, 
places, and people were all very unreal to them while 
in the Sunday school, and that it hardly occurred to 
them that these descriptions and narratives were truly 
about men and women like ourselves. Hence the most 
valuable part of their instruction was lost. 



172 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

Limitations of imagination. — Since childhood is the 
age of imagination, we might naturally expect that it 
would be no trouble to secure ready response from the 
child's imagination. But we must not assume too much 
about the early power of imagination. It is true that 
the child's imagination is ready and active; but it is 
not yet ready for the more difficult and complex pic- 
turing we sometimes require of it, for imagination de- 
pends for its material on the store of images accumulated 
from former experience; and images are the result of 
past observation, of percepts, and sensory experiences. 
The imagination can build no mental structures without 
the stuff with which to build; it is limited to the ma- 
terial on hand. The Indians never dreamed of a heaven 
with streets of gold and a great white throne; for their 
experiences had given them no knowledge of such 
things. They therefore made their heaven out of the 
"Happy Hunting Grounds," of which they had many 
images. 

Many Chicago school children who were asked to 
compare the height of a mountain with that of a tall 
factory chimney said that the chimney was higher, 
because the mountain "does not go straight up" like 
the chimney. These children had learned and recited 
that a mountain "is an elevation of land a thousand 
or more than a thousand feet in height," but; their imag- 
ination failed to picture the mountain, since not even 
the smallest mountain nor a high hill had ever been 
actually present to their observation. Small wonder, 
then, that Sunday school children have some trouble, 
living as they do in these modern times, to picture 
ancient times and peoples who were so different from 
any with which their experience has had to deal! 

Guiding principles. — The skillful teacher knows how 



MAKING TRUTH VIVID 173 

to help the child use his imagination. The following 
laws or principles will aid in such training: 

1. Relate the new scene or picture with something 
similar in the child's experience. The desert is like the 
sandy waste or the barren and stony hillside with 
which the children are acquainted. The square, flat- 
topped houses of eastern lands have their approximate 
counterpart in occasional buildings to be found in 
almost any modern community. The rivers and lakes 
of Bible lands may be compared with rivers and lakes 
near at hand. The manner of cooking and serving 
food under primitive conditions was not so different 
from our own method on picnics and excursion days. 
While the life and work of the shepherd have changed, 
we still have the sheep. The walls of the ancient city 
can be seen in miniature in stone and concrete em- 
bankments, or even the stone fences common in some 
sections. 

The main thing is to get some starting point in actual 
observation from which the child can proceed. The 
teacher must then help the child to modify from the 
actual in such a way as to picture the object or place 
described as nearly true to reality as possible. The 
child who said, "A mountain is a mound of earth with 
brush growing on it" had been shown a hillock covered 
with growing brush and had been told that the moun- 
tain was like this, only bigger. The imagination had 
not been sufficiently stimulated to realize the significant 
differences and to picture the real mountain from the 
miniature suggestion. 

2. Articles and objects from ancient times or from 
other lands may occasionally be secured to show the chil- 
dren. Even if such objects may not date back to Bible 
times, they are still useful as a vantage point for the 



174 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

imagination. A modem copy of the old-time Oriental 
lamp, a candelabrum, a pair of sandals, a turban, a 
robe, or garment such as the ancients wore — these 
accompanied by intelligent description of the times 
and places to which they belonged are all a stimulus 
to the child's imagination which should not be over- 
looked. The very fact that they suggest other peoples 
and other modes of living than our own is an invita- 
tion and incentive to the mind to reach out beyond 
the immediate and the familiar to the new and the 
strange. 

3. Pictures can be made a great help to the imagination. 
In the better type of our church schools we are now 
making free use of pictures as teaching material. It 
is not always enough, however, merely to place the 
picture before the child. It requires a certain fund 
of information and interest in order to see in a picture 
what it is intended to convey. The child cannot get 
from the picture more than he brings to it. The teacher 
may therefore need to give the picture its proper setting 
by describing the kind of life or the type of action or 
event with which it deals. He may need to ask ques- 
tions, and make suggestions in order to be sure that 
the child sees in the picture the interesting and im- 
portant things, and that his imagination carries out 
beyond what is actually presented in the picture itself 
to what it suggests. While the first response of the 
child to a picture, as to a story, should be that of enjoy- 
ment and interest, this does not mean that the picture, 
like the story, may not reach much deeper than the 
immediate interest and enjoyment. The picture which 
has failed to stimulate the child's imagination to see 
much more than the picture contains has failed of one 
of its chief objects. 



MAKING TRUTH VIVID 175 

4. Stimulate the imagination by use of vivid descrip- 
tions and thought-provoking questions. Every teacher, 
whether of young children or of older ones, should 
strive to be a good teller of stories and a good user of 
illustrations. This requires study and practice, but 
it is worth the cost — even outside of the classroom. 
The good story-teller must be able to speak freely, 
easily, and naturally. He must have a sense of the 
important and significant in a story or illustration, and 
be able to work to a climax. He must know just how 
much of detail to use to appeal to the imagination to 
supply the remainder, and not employ so great an 
amount of detail as to leave nothing to the imagination 
of the listener. He must himself enter fully into the 
spirit and enthusiasm of the story, and must have his 
own imagination filled with the pictures he would 
create in his pupils' minds. He must himself enjoy the 
story or the illustration, and thus be able in his ex- 
pression and manner to suggest the response he desires 
from the children. Well told stories that have in them 
the dramatic quality can hardly fail to stir the most 
sluggish imagination and prepare it for the important 
part it must play in the child's religious develop- 
ment. 

Skillfully used questions and suggestions can be 
made an important means of stimulating the imagina- 
tion. Such helps as: Do you think the sea of Galilee 
looked like the lake (here name one near at hand) 
which you know? How did it differ? What tree have 
you in mind which is about the same size as the fig 
tree in the lesson? How does it differ in appearance? 
Close your eyes and try to see in your mind just how 
the river looked where the baby Moses was found. 
Have you ever seen a man who you think looks much 



176 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

as Elijah must have looked? Describe him. If you 
were going to make a coat like the one Joseph wore, 
what colors would you select? What kind of cloth? 
What would be the cut or shape of it? — Hardly a lesson 
period will pass without many opportunities for wise 
questions whose chief purpose is to make real and 
vivid to the child the persons or places described, and 
so add to their significance to him. 

5. Dramatic representation can be used as an incen- 
tive to the imagination. Children easily and naturally 
imagine themselves to be some other person, and 
often play at being nurse or school teacher or doctor 
or preacher. Nearly every child possesses a large 
measure of the dramatic impulse, and is something 
of an actor. It is great fun for children to "tog up" 
and to "show off" in their play. And not only is all 
this an expression of imagination actively at work, 
but such activities are themselves a great stimulus 
to the imagination. The child who has dressed up 
as George Washington and impersonated him in some 
ceremonial or on a public occasion will ever after feel 
a closer reality in the life and work of Washington 
than would come from mere reading about him. A 
group of children who have acted out the story of the 
good Samaritan will get a little closer to its inner mean- 
ing than merely to hear the story told. The girl who 
has taken the part of Esther appearing before the 
king in behalf of her people will realize a little more 
fully from that experience what devotion and courage 
were required from the real Esther. A class who have 
participated in a pageant of the Nativity will always 
be a little nearer to the original event than if their 
imaginations had not been called upon to make real 
the characters and incidents. 



MAKING TRUTH VIVID 177 

USING THE MEMORY 

The memory should play an important part in re- 
ligion. Gems from the Bible, stories, characters, and 
events, inspiring thoughts and maxims, and many 
other such things should become a permanent part 
of the furnishing of the mind, recorded and faithfully 
preserved by the memory. 

Laws of use of memory. — The laws by which the 
memory works have been thoroughly studied and care- 
fully described, and should be fully understood by 
every teacher. Further than this, they should be faith- 
fully observed in all memory work. These laws may be 
stated as follows: 

1. The law of complete registration. The first act 
in the memory process is fully and completely to register, 
or learn, the matter to be retained. The retention can 
never be better than the registration of the facts given 
into the memory's keeping. Half -learned matter easily 
slips away, never having been completely impressed 
on the mind. It is possible to lose both effort and 
efficiency by committing a verse of a poem barely up 
to the point where it can doubtfully be repeated instead 
of giving it the relatively small amount of additional 
study and practice which would register it firmly and 
completely. Whatever is worth committing to memory 
should therefore be carried past the barely known 
stage and committed fully and completely. 

2. The law of multiple association. This only means 
that the new facts learned shall be related as closely 
as may be to matter already in the mind. And this 
is equivalent to saying that the material learned shall 
be understood, its meaning grasped and its significance 
comprehended. To understand for yourself the value 
of association, make this experiment: Have some one 



178 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

write down a list of ten unrelated words in a column, 
and hold the list before you while you have time to 
read it over just once slowly and carefully. Now try 
repeating the words in order from memory. Next, 
have your friend write ten other words which this time 
form a connected sentence. After reading these words 
over once as you did the first list, try repeating them 
in order. You find that you have much trouble to 
memorize the first list, while the second presents no 
difficulty at all. The difference lies in the fact that 
the words of the first list were unrelated, lacking all 
associative connections with each other, while those 
of the second list formed a connected chain of asso- 
ciations. 

It is possible to give the child biblical or other matter 
to memorize that has little more meaning to him than 
the list of unrelated words have to us. For example, 
this text is required of primary and junior children 
in a lesson series: "Ye shall know the truth, and the 
truth shall make you free." And this: "Let us there- 
fore draw near with boldness unto the throne of grace, 
that we may receive mercy, and may find grace to help 
us in time of need." It is evident that younger chil- 
dren could by no possibility understand either of these 
beautiful passages, and hence in committing them will 
only be learning so many unrelated words. 

The same is true of church catechisms. The mem- 
orizing of such material will be difficult and unpleasant, 
and no value will come from it. The most likely out- 
come of such ill-advised requirements is to discourage 
the child and make him dislike the church school and 
all its work. It is not to be expected that the child 
will understand the full meaning of every bit of matter 
suitable for him to memorize; this will have to await 



MAKING TRUTH VIVID 179 

broader experience and fuller development. The ma- 
terial should, however, be sufficiently comprehended 
that its general meaning is clear and its significance 
understood. 

3. The law of vividness of impression. The relation 
of vividness of impression to learning has already been 
discussed in another chapter. In no one of the mind's 
activities is vividness a more important factor than in 
memorizing. Matter committed under the stimulus 
of high interest and keen attention is relatively secure, 
while matter committed under slack concentration is 
sure to fade quickly from the memory. Songs can 
therefore best be committed under the elation of the 
interesting singing of the words; a verse of poetry, 
when the mind is alert and the feelings aroused by a 
story in which the sentiment of the verse fits; a prayer 
when the spirit of devotion has been quickened by 
worship. To insure full vividness the imagination 
must also be called upon to picture and make real such 
parts of memory material as contain imagery. 

4. The law of repetition. For most minds memory 
depends on repetition. The impressions must be deep- 
ened and made lasting by being stamped again and 
again on the mind. The neurons of the brain which 
do the work of retaining and recalling must be made 
to repeat the process over and over until their action is 
secure. It is therefore not enough to make sure that 
the child has his memory material committed for this 
particular Sunday. If the matter was worth com- 
mitting in the first place, it is worth keeping permanently. 
If it is to be kept permanently, it must be frequently 
reviewed; for otherwise it will surely be forgotten. 
It is to be feared that much, if not most, of the matter 
memorized by the pupils in many church schools lasts 



180 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

only long enough to show the teacher that it has once 
been learned, and that not many children know in any 
permanent sense the Bible passages they have committed. 
In so far as this is true it would be much better to 
select a smaller amount of the choicest and best adapted 
material to be found, and then so thoroughly teach 
this that it is permanently retained. 

5. The law of wholes instead of parts. Many persons 
in setting at work to commit a poem, a Bible passage, 
a psalm have a tendency to learn it first by verses or 
sections and then put the parts together to form the 
whole. Tests upon the memory have shown that this 
is a less economical and efficient method than from the 
first to commit the material as a whole. This method 
requires that we go over all of it completely from be- 
ginning to end, then over it again, and so on until we 
can repeat much of it without reference to the text. 
We then refer to the text for what the memory has not 
yet grasped, requiring the memory to repeat all that 
has been committed, until the whole is in this manner 
fully learned. The method of learning by wholes not 
only requires less time and effort, but gives a better 
sense of unity in the matter committed. 

6. The law of divided practice. If to learn a certain 
piece of material the child must go over it, say, fifteen 
times, the results are much better if the whole number 
of repetitions are not carried out at one time. Time 
seems necessary to give the associations an oppor- 
tunity to set up their relationships; also, the interval 
between repetitions allows the parts that are hardest 
to commit to begin fading out, and thereby reveal 
where further practice is demanded. Where songs, 
Bible verses, or other material are committed in the 
lesson hour, provision ought to be made for the children 



MAKING TRUTH VIVID 181 

to continue study and practice on the material at home 
during the week. The so-called cramming process of 
learning will not work any better in the church school 
than in the day-school lessons. 

7. The law of motivation. Like other activities of 
the mind, memory works best under the stimulus of 
some appealing motive. The very best possible motive 
is, of course, an interest in and love for the matter 
committed. This kind of response can hardly be ex- 
pected, however, in all of the material children are 
asked to commit. It is necessary to use additional 
motives to secure full effort. The approval of the 
teacher and parents, the child's standing in the class, 
and his own sense of achievement are some of the mo- 
tives that should be employed. 

A very powerful motive not always sufficiently made 
use of is the wider social motive that comes from work- 
ing in groups for a particular end. For example, a 
school or class pageant based on some biblical story 
or religious event has the effect of centralizing effort 
and stimulating endeavor to a degree impossible in 
individual work. Hymns and songs are committed, 
Bible passages or other religious material learned, stories 
mastered, characters studied and their words com- 
mitted under the stress of an immediate need for them 
in order to take one's part in a social group and prove 
one's mastery before an audience of interested listeners. 
The church school can with great advantage centralize 
more of its religious memory work in preparation for 
such special occasions as Easter, Christmas, Thanks- 
giving, or other church celebrations or pageants. 

1. What reasons can you give why children should be 
taught to think in their study of religion just as in the study 
of any other subject ? Do you find a thoughtful attitude on 



182 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

the part of your class? What methods do you use to en- 
courage reverent thinking in religion ? 

2. One thinks best in connection with some question or 
problem which he wishes to have answered. Do you plan 
in connection with your preparation of the lesson to bring 
out some definite problem suited to the age of your class 
and help your pupils think it through to a solution? 

3 . What evidences can you suggest from your class work 
which show that children readily think upon any problem 
that interests them? Have your pupils asked questions 
showing that they are thinking? When such questions are 
asked, how do you treat them? 

4. What lessons of recent date in your work have you 
in mind which especially required the use of imagination? 
Can you judge the degree to which the descriptive parts of 
the lessons appeal to your pupils as real? 

5. How successfully do you feel that you are applying 
the principles for the use of the imagination? Do you 
definitely seek to apply these principles in your lessons? 
Which of these is probably the hardest to apply? What is 
your method of seeking its application ? 

6. Are your pupils good in memory work? Do you ever 
give them material to memorize the meaning of which is 
not wholly clear to them? What help do you give the 
children when you assign them memory work? Do you 
instruct them how to memorize what you assign ? To what 
extent are you following the laws of memory as stated in 
the chapter? 

FOR FURTHER READING 

Betts, The Mind and Its Education. 

Dewey, How We Think. 

Coe, Education in Religion and Morals. 



CHAPTER XI 
TYPES OF TEACHING 

One of the surest tests of the skillful teacher is his 
ability to adapt his instruction to the child, to the sub- 
ject matter, and to the occasion — that is, to the aim. 
Teaching must differ in its type with the age; the primary 
child and the older youth require different methods. 
It must differ with the kind of material to be presented; 
a lesson whose chief aim is to give information must 
be differently presented from a lesson whose aim is to 
enforce some moral or religious truth. It must differ 
with the occasion; a lesson taught a group of children 
who have had no previous study or preparation on it 
will demand different treatment from a lesson which 
has had careful study. 

Types of lessons. — Several clearly recognized types 
of lessons are commonly employed by teachers in both 
school and church-school classes. No one of these 
lesson types can be said to be best in the sense that 
it should be used to the exclusion of the others. All 
are required. Several may even be employed in the 
same recitation period. The teacher should, however, 
know which type he is employing at any given stage 
of his instruction, and why he is using this type in 
preference to another type of teaching. The following 
are the chief lesson types that will be found serviceable 
in most church school classes: 

i. The informational lesson; in which the immediate 
aim is to supply the mind with new knowledge or facts 
needed as a part of the equipment of thought and 
understanding. 

183 



184 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

2. The developmental (or inductive) lesson; in which 
the aim is to lead the child through his own investiga- 
tion and thinking to use the information already in his 
possession as a basis for discovering new truth or meaning. 

3. The application (or deductive) lesson; in which 
the aim is to make application of some general truth 
or lesson already known to particular problems or cases. 

4. The drill lesson; in which the aim is to give readi- 
ness and skill in fundamental facts or material that 
should be so well known as to be practically automatic 
in thought or memory. 

5. The appreciation lesson; in which the aim is to 
create a response of warmth and interest toward, or 
appreciation of, a person, object, situation, or the 
material studied. 

6. The review lesson; in which the aim is to gather 
up, relate, and fix more permanently in the mind the 
lessons or facts that have been studied. 

7. The assignment lesson; in which help is rendered 
and interest inspired for study of the next lesson. 

THE INFORMATIONAL LESSON 

The child at the beginning is devoid of all knowl- 
edge of and information about the many objects, activ- 
ities, and relationships that fill his world. He must 
come to know these. His mind can develop no faster 
than it has the materials for thoughts, memories, ideas, 
and whatever else is to occupy his stream of thought. 
He must therefore be supplied with information. He 
must be given a fund of impressions, of facts, of knowl- 
edge to use in his thinking, feeling, and understanding. 

To undertake to teach the child the deeper meanings 
and relationships of God to our lives without this neces- 
sary background of information is to confuse him and 



TYPES OF TEACHING 185 

to fail ourselves as teachers. For example, a certain 
primary lesson leaflet tells the children that the Egyp- 
tians made slaves out of the Israelites and that God 
led the Israelites out of this slavery. But there had 
previously been no adequate preparation of the learn- 
ers' minds to understand who the Israelites or the 
Egyptians were, nor what slavery is. The children 
lacked all basis of information to understand the situa- 
tion described, and it could by no possibility possess 
meaning for them. 

The use of the information lesson. — It is not 
meant, of course, that when the chief purpose of a 
lesson is to give information no applications should be 
made or no interpretations given of the matter pre- 
sented. Yet the fact is that often the chief emphasis 
must be placed on information, and that for the moment 
other aims are secondary. To illustrate: When young 
children are first told the story of God creating the 
world the main purpose of the lesson is just to give them 
the story, and not to attempt instruction as to the power 
and wonder of creative wisdom, nor even at this time 
to stress the seventh day as a day of rest. When the 
story of Moses bringing his people out of Egypt is told 
young children, the providence of God will be made 
evident, but the facts of the story itself and its enjoy- 
ment just as a story should not in early childhood be 
overshadowed by attempting to force the moral and 
religious applications too closely. 

It even happens that the indirect lesson, in which 
the child is left to see for himself the application and 
meaning, is often the most effective to teaching. The 
same principle holds when, later in the course, the 
youth is first studying in its entirety the life of Jesus. 
The main thing is to get a sympathetic, reverent, con- 



186 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

nected view of Jesus' s life as a whole. There will, of 
course, be a thousand lessons to be learned and appli- 
cations to be made from his teachings, but these should 
rest on a fund of accurate information about Jesus him- 
self and wlia* he taught. 

Danger of neglecting information. — It should be 
clear, then, that in advocating the informational lesson 
there is no thought of asking that we should teach our 
children mere facts, or fill their heads with mere in- 
formation. The intention is, rather, to stress the 
important truth often seemingly forgotten, that to be 
intelligent in one's religion there are certain fundamental 
things which must be known; that to be a worthy Chris- 
tian there are certain facts, stories, personages, and 
events with a knowledge of which the mind must be 
well furnished. There can be little doubt that the 
common run of teaching in our church schools has 
failed to give our children a sufficient basis of informa- 
tion upon which to build their religious experience. 

Informational instruction may be combined with 
other types of lessons, or may be given as separate 
lessons which stress almost entirely the informational 
aspect of the material. In the younger classes the 
information will come to the children chiefly in the 
form of stories, and the accounts of lives of great men 
and women. Later in the course, Bible narrative, 
history, and biography will supply the chief sources 
of informational material. 

THE DEVELOPMENTAL LESSON 

It is a safe principle in teaching not to give ready- 
made to children a fact or conclusion which they can 
easily be led by questions and suggestions to discover 
for themselves. Truths which one has found out for 



TYPES OF TEACHING 187 

himself always mean more than matter that is dog- 
matically forced upon him. The pupil who has watched 
the bees sucking honey from clover blossoms and then 
going with pollen-laden feet to another blossom, or 
one who has observed the drifting pollen from orchard 
or corn field, is better able to understand the fertiliza- 
tion of plants than he would be from any mere descrip- 
tion of the process. 

On the same principle, the child will get a deeper 
and more lasting impression of the effects of disobedience 
if led to see the effect of the disobedience of Adam 
and Eve in the shame and sorrow and feeling of guilt 
that came to them, than he will through listening to 
ever so many impressive assertions on the sin of dis- 
obedience. If the concrete lesson is carried over to 
his own personal experience and his observation of the 
results of disobedience, and the unhappiness it has 
brought, the effect is all the greater. 

Purpose of the inductive lesson. — The developmen- 
tal, or inductive, lesson, therefore, seeks to lead the 
child to observe, discover, think, find out for himself. 
It begins with concrete and particular instances, but it 
does not stop with them. It does not at the start force 
upon the child any rules or general conclusions, but it 
does seek to arrive at conclusions and rules in the end. 
For example, the purpose in having the child watch 
particular bees carrying pollen to blossoms, and in 
having him observe particular pollen drifting in the 
wind, is to teach in the end the general truth that 
certain plants are dependent on insects and others on 
currents of air for their pollenization. 

In similar fashion, the purpose in having the child 
understand the effects of disobedience in the case of 
Adam and Eve and in any particular instance in his 



188 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

own experience is to teach the general conclusion that 
disobedience commonly brings sorrow and trouble. The 
aim, then, is to arrive at a universal truth of wide 
application, but to reach it through appealing to the 
child } s own knowledge, experience, and observation. In 
this way the lesson learned will have more vital mean- 
ing and it will be more readily accepted because not 
forced upon the learner. 

Two principles. — Two important principles must be 
kept in mind in teaching an inductive lesson: 

i. A basis or starting point must be found in knowl- 
edge or experience already in the learner's possession. 

2. The child must have in his mind the question 
or problem which demands solution. 

The first of these principles means that in order for 
the child to observe, think, discover for himself, he 
must have a sufficient basis of information from which 
to proceed. The inductive lesson, therefore, rests upon 
and starts from the informational lesson. To illustrate, 
in order to understand and be interested in the work 
of the bees as pollen-bearers, the child must first know 
the fact that the blossoming and fruiting of the common 
plants depend on pollen. The ear of corn which did 
not properly fill with grains because something hap- 
pened to prevent pollen grains from reaching the tips 
of the silks at the right time, or the apple tree barren 
because it failed from some adverse cause to receive 
a supply of pollen for its blossoms may properly be 
the starting point. The problem or question then arising 
is how pollen grains are carried. With this basis of 
fact and of question, the child is ready to begin the 
interesting task of observation and discovery under 
the direction of the teacher; he is then ready for 
the inductive lesson, in which he will discover new 



TYPES OF TEACHING 189 

knowledge by using the information already in his 
mind. 

Conducting the inductive lesson. — In conducting 
the inductive lesson the teacher must from the begin- 
ning have a very clear idea of the goal or conclusion 
to be reached by the learners. Suppose the purpose 
is to impress on the children the fact of Jesus's love 
and care for children. The lesson might start with 
questions and illustrations dealing with the father's 
and mother's care and love for each child in the home, 
and the way these are shown. 

Following this would come the story of Jesus rebuking 
his disciples for trying to send the children away, and 
his own kindness to the children. Then such questions 
as these: How did the disciples feel about having the 
children around Jesus? Why did they tell the children 
to keep away? Perhaps they were afraid the children 
would annoy or trouble Jesus. Have you ever known 
anyone who did not seem to like to have children around 
him? Does your mother like to have you come and 
be beside her? What did Jesus say about letting the 
children come to him? Why do you think Jesus liked 
to have the children around him? How did Jesus 
show his love for children? Why do you think the 
children liked to be with Jesus? Do you think that 
Jesus loves children as much to-day as when he was upon 
earth? Do you think he wants children to be good and 
happy now as he did then? In what ways does Jesus 
show his love and kindness to children? The impression 
or conclusion to grow out of these questions and the 
story is that Jesus loved and cared for children when he 
was upon earth, and that he loves and cares for them 
now just as he did then. This will be the goal in the 
teacher's mind from the beginning of the lesson. 



iqo HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

THE DEDUCTIVE, OR APPLICATION, LESSON 

Not all teaching can be of the inductive, or discovery, 
type. It is necessary now and then to start with gen- 
eral truths, rules, or principles and apply them to 
concrete individual cases. Rules and maxims once 
understood are often serviceable in working out new 
problems. The conclusions reached from a study of 
one set of circumstances can frequently be used in 
meeting similar situations another time. 

For example, the child learns by a study of par- 
ticular instances the results of disobedience, and finally 
arrives at the great general truth that disobedience to 
the laws of nature or of God is followed by punishment 
and suffering. This fact becomes to him a rule, a prin- 
ciple, a maxim, which has universal application. Once 
this is understood and accepted, the child is armed 
with a weapon against disobedience. With this equip- 
ment he can say when he confronts temptation: This 
means disobedience to God's law and the laws of nature; 
but disobedience to the laws of God and of nature brings 
punishment and suffering; therefore if I do this thing, 
I shall be punished, and shall suffer — / will refrain 
from doing it. 

Making the application. — A large part of our in- 
struction in religion must be of the deductive kind. 
It is impossible, even if it were desirable, to rediscover 
and develop inductively out of observation and expe- 
rience all the great moral and religious laws which 
should govern the life. Many of these come to us 
ready-made, the result of the aggregate experience of 
generations of religious living, or the product of God's 
revelation to men. Consider, for example, such great 
generalizations as: "Where your treasure is, there will 
your heart be also;" " Blessed are the merciful, for 



TYPES OF TEACHING 191 

they shall obtain mercy"; "No man can serve two 
masters"; "With what measure ye mete it shall be meas- 
ured unto you"; "The wages of sin is death." 

These are illustrations of the concentrated wisdom 
of the finest hearts and minds the world has seen, words 
spoken by Inspiration, but true to the experience of 
every person. It is our part as teachers to make the 
great fundamental moral and religious laws which 
underlie our lives living truths to our pupils. To do 
this we must not teach such truths as mere abstrac- 
tions, but show them at work in the lives of men and 
women and of boys and girls. We must find illustra- 
tions, we must make applications, and discover examples 
of proof and verification. 

Teaching that fails from lack of applying truth. 
— The object, then, of the inductive lesson is to lead 
the learner to discover truth; the object of the deductive 
lesson is to lead him to apply truth. There can be little 
doubt that much of our teaching of religion suffers 
from failure to make immediate and vital application 
of the truths we teach. When we teach the youth that 
no man can serve two masters, we should not be satis- 
fied until we have shown him the proof of this truth 
at work in the everyday experience of men. When 
we teach him that the wages of sin is death, we must 
not stop with the mere statement of fact, but lead him 
to recognize the effects of sin's work in broken lives 
and ruined careers. 

Nor should we confine our proofs and illustrations 
to examples taken from the Bible, valuable as these 
are. Too many, perhaps half unconsciously to them- 
selves, carry the impression that religion belongs rather 
more to Bible times and peoples than to ourselves. 
Too many assent to the general truth of religion and 



192 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

the demands it puts on our lives, but fail to make a 
sufficiently immediate and definite application of its 
requirements to their own round of daily living. Too 
many think of the divine law as revealed in the Scriptures 
as having a historical significance rather than a present 
application. One of the tasks of deductive teaching 
is to cure this fatal weakness in the study of religion. 

THE DRILL LESSON 

Teaching religion does not require as large a pro- 
portion of drill as many other subjects. This is because 
the purpose of drill is to make certain matter automatic 
in the mind, or to train definite acts to a high degree 
of skill. For example, the child must come to know 
his multiplication table readily, " without thinking"; 
he must come to be able to write or spell or count or 
manipulate the keys of a typewriter without directing 
his attention to the acts required. Wherever auto- 
matic action or ready skill is required, there drill is 
demanded. Drill provides for the repetition of the 
mental or physical act until habit has made it second 
nature and it goes on practically doing itself. There is 
no way to get a high degree of skill without drill, for the 
simple reason that the brain requires a certain amount 
of repeated action before it can carry out the necessary 
operations without error and without the application 
of conscious thought. 

Drill lessons in the church school. — While the 
church-school teacher will not require so much use of 
drill as the day-school teacher, it is highly essential that 
drill shall not be omitted at points where it is needed. 
There are some things which the child should learn 
very thoroughly and completely in his study of religion. 
He should know a few prayers by heart, so that their 



TYPES OF TEACHING 193 

words come to him naturally and easily when he desires 
to use them. He should know the words and music 
of certain songs and hymns suited to his age. He 
should learn certain Bible passages of rare beauty, 
and other sentiments, verses, and poems found out- 
side the Bible. He should come, as a matter of con- 
venience and skill, to know the names and order of the 
books of the Bible. In some churches he is required 
to know the catechism. Whatever of such material 
is to be mastered fully and completely must receive 
careful drill. 

Principles for conducting the drill. — The first step 
in a successful drill lesson is to supply a motive for the 
drill. This is necessary in order to secure alertness and 
effort. Mere repetition is not drill. Monotonous going 
over the words of a poem or the list of books of the 
Bible with wandering or slack attention will fail of 
results. The learner must be keyed up, and give him- 
self whole-heartedly to the work. Let the child come 
to feel a real need of mastery, and one great motive is 
supplied. Let him desire the words of the song because 
he is to sing in the chorus, or desire the words of 
the poem because he is to take part in a pageant, 
and there will be little trouble about willingness to 
drill. 

Again, the competitive impulse can often be used to 
motivate drill. The child is ambitious to stand at the 
head of his class, or to beat his own record of perform- 
ance, or to win the appreciation or praise of teacher 
or parents, or he has a pride in personal achievement 
— these are all worthy motives, and can be made of 
great service in conducting classroom or individual 
drills. The posting of a piece of good work done by 
a pupil, or calling attention to the good performance 



i 9 4 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

of a member of the class can often be made an incentive 
to the whole number. 

Drill, in order to be effective, must not stop short 
of thorough mastery. The matter which is barely 
learned, or the verse which can be but doubtfully re- 
peated is sure to escape if not fixed by further drill. 
It is probable, as suggested in an earlier chapter, that 
we attempt to have our children memorize too much 
Bible material which is beyond their understanding 
and too difficult for them. On the other hand, there 
can be no doubt that we fail to teach them sufficiently 
well the smaller amount of beautiful sentiments, verses, 
poems, songs, and prayers which should be a part of 
the mental and spiritual possession of every child. 
Our weekly lessons provide for the memorizing of Bible 
matter week by week, yet surprisingly few children 
can repeat any sensible amount of such material. Better 
results would follow if we should require less material, 
select it more wisely, and then drill upon it until it is 
firmly fixed in the mind as a permanent and familiar 
possession. 

THE APPRECIATION LESSON 

It is quite as essential that the child shall come to 
enjoy and admire right things as that he shall know 
right things. To cultivate appreciation for the beau- 
tiful, the good, the fine, and the true is one of the great 
aims of our teaching. One who is able to analyze a 
flower and technically describe its botanical parts, but 
who fails to respond to its beauty has still much to 
learn about flowers. One who learns the facts about 
the life of Paul, Elijah, or Jesus but who does not feel 
and admire the strength, gentleness, and goodness of 
their characters has missed one of the essential points 



TYPES OF TEACHING 195 

in his study. One who masters the details about a 
poem or a picture but who misses the thrill of enjoy- 
ment and appreciation which it holds for him has gath- 
ered but the husks and misses the right kernel of meaning. 

How to teach appreciation. — Appreciation can never 
be taught directly. The best we can do is to bring to 
the child the thing of beauty or goodness which we 
desire him to enjoy and admire, making sure that he 
comprehends its meaning as fully as may be, and then 
leave it to exert its own appeal. We may by ill-advised 
comment or insistence even hinder appreciation. The 
teacher who constantly asks the children, "Do you 
not think the poem is beautiful?" or, "Is not this a 
lovely song?" not only fails to help toward appreciation, 
but is in danger of creating a false attitude in the child 
by causing him to express admiration where none is felt. 

There is also grave doubt whether it is not a mistake 
to urge too much on the child that he "ought" to love 
God, or that it is his "duty" to love the church. The 
fact is that love, admiration and appreciation cannot 
be compelled by any act of the will or sense of duty. 
They must arise spontaneously from a realization of 
some lovable or beautiful quality which exerts an 
appeal that will not be denied. 

The part of the teacher at this point, therefore, is 
to act as interpreter, to help the learner to grasp the 
meaning of the poem, the picture, the song, or the 
character he is studying. The admirable qualities are 
to be brought out, the beautiful aspects set forth, and 
the lovable traits placed in high light. The teacher 
may even express his own admiration and appreciation, 
though without sentimentality or effusiveness. Nor is 
it likely that a teacher will be able to excite admiration 
in his class for any object of study which he does not 



i 9 6 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

himself admire. If his own soul does not rise to the 
beauty of the twenty-third psalm or to the inimitable 
grandeur and strength of the Christ-life, he is hardly 
the one to hold these subjects of study before children. 

THE REVIEW LESSON 

Reviews and tests fulfill a double purpose for the 
learner: they help to organize and make more usable 
the matter that has been learned, and they reveal 
success or failure in mastery. They also serve the 
teacher as a measure of his success in teaching. The 
review lesson should not be, as it often is, a mere rep- 
etition of as many facts from previous lessons as time 
will permit to be covered. It should present a new 
view of the subject. It should deal with the great 
essential points, and so relate and organize them that 
the threefold aim of fruitful knowledge, right attitudes, 
and practical applications shall be stressed and made 
secure. 

Guiding principles. — If the section of matter under 
review deals with a series of events, such as the story 
of the migration of the Israelites from Egypt or the 
account of the ministry of Jesus, then the review lesson 
must pick out and emphasize those incidents and appli- 
cations which should become a part of the permanent 
possession of the child's mind from the study of this 
material. These related points should be so linked 
together and so reimpressed that they will form a 
continuous view of the period or topic studied. There 
is no place for the incidental nor for minute and un- 
related detail in the review. 

The teacher will need most careful preparation and 
planning to conduct a review. He must have the entire 
field to be reviewed fully mastered and in his own mind 



TYPES OF TEACHING 197 

as a unit, else he cannot lead the child back over it 
successfully. He must work out a lesson plan which will 
secure interest and response on the part of his pupils. 
Many review lessons drag, and are but endured by 
the class. This may be accounted for by the fact that 
the review recitation often fails to do more than repeat 
old material. It may also come from the fact that 
the children are asked details which they have for- 
gotten or never knew, so that they are unable to take 
their part. It may in some cases arise from the fact 
that the teacher is himself not ready for the review, 
and does not like review days. Whatever may be the 
cause, the review that fails to catch interest or call 
forth enthusiasm has in so far failed of its purpose. 
The minds of teacher and pupils should be at their best 
and concentration at its keenest for the review lesson. 

ASSIGNMENT OF LESSON 

No small part of the success of instruction depends 
on faithfulness and skill in assigning lessons. Too often 
this is left for the very last moment of the class hour, 
when there is no time left for proper assignment and 
the teacher can give only the most hurried and incom- 
plete directions. Or, it may be that the only direction 
that is given is the exhortation to "be sure to prepare 
the lesson for next week." But this will not suffice. 
We must not forget that children, especially the younger 
children, may not know just how to go to work upon 
the lesson, nor what to do in getting it. It is hard for 
any young child to gather thought from the printed 
page, even after he has attained fair skill in reading; 
and it is doubly hard if the matter is difficult or un- 
familiar, as is much of the material found in the church- 
school lessons. 



198 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

How to make the assignment. — In order to assign 
the lesson properly the teacher must, of course, be 
perfectly familiar with the coming lesson. This means 
that he must keep a week ahead in his preparation, 
which is in the end no loss, but even a gain. The teacher 
must also have the plan of the lesson sufficiently in 
mind that he knows just what points are to be stressed, 
what will present the most difficulty to the class, what 
will most appeal to their interest, and what will need 
to be especially assigned for study or investigation. 
In lessons which children are to prepare at home it is 
usually well to go over the material briefly with the 
class in making the assignment, giving hints for study, 
calling attention to interesting points, and stating 
very definitely just what the class is expected to do. 

If there is to be written work, this should be fully 
understood: if handwork or drawing or coloring, it 
should be made perfectly clear what is required; if 
memory material is asked for, it should be gone over, 
the meaning made clear to every child, and directions 
given as to how best to commit the matter. If out- 
side references are assigned in books or magazines, the 
reference should be written down in the notebook or 
given the child on a slip of paper so that no mistake 
may be made. The purpose and requirement in all 
these matters is to be as definite and clear as would 
be required in any business concern, leaving no chance 
for failure or mistake because of lack of understanding. 
Less than this is an evidence of carelessness or in- 
competence in the teacher. 

i. In order better to understand and to review the 
several types of lessons listed in the chapter it will be well 
for you to look through the lessons for the current quarter 
or year and determine to which type each separate lesson 



TYPES OF TEACHING 199 

belongs. How many do you find of each type? Are there 
many lessons that will involve several of the types? 

2. Which type of these lessons do you best like to 
teach? Is there any particular type that you have been 
neglecting? Any in which you feel that you are not very 
successful? What will you need to do to increase your 
efficiency on this type of lesson? 

3. Do you feel that you are reasonably skillful in lead- 
ing children to discover truths for themselves through the 
use of questions? If you find when questioning that the 
children lack the information necessary to arriving at the 
truth desired, what must you then do? What do you 
consider your greatest weakness in conducting the develop- 
mental lesson ? 

4. Does your class like review lessons? If not, can you 
discover the reason? Have your reviews been largely 
repetitions of matter already covered, or have they used 
such devices as to bring the matter up in new guise? 
Do you believe that review day can be made the most 
interesting of the lessons? Some teachers say it can, 
How will you go at it to make it so ? 

5. What application, or deductive, lesson have you 
taught your class recently ? Was it a success ? Have you 
ever discovered a tendency in your teaching to have your 
class commit to memory some great truth, but fail in its 
application to real problems in their own lives? What 
applications of religious truths have you recently made 
successfully in your class? 

6. What is your method or plan of assigning lessons? 
Do you think that any part of the children's failure to pre- 
pare their lessons may be due to imperfect assignments? 
Will you make the assignment of the lessons that lie ahead 
one of your chief problems? 

FOR FURTHER READING 

Earhart, Types of Teaching. 



200 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

Strayer, A Brief Course in the Teaching Process. 

Hayward, The Lesson in Appreciation. 

Knight, Some Principles of Teaching as Applied to the 

Sunday School. 
Maxwell, The Observation of Teaching. 



CHAPTER XII 
METHODS USED IN THE RECITATION 

The particular mode of procedure used in recitation 
will depend on the nature of the material, the age of the 
pupils, and the aim of the lesson. For the church- 
school recitation period four different methods are 
chiefly used. These are: 

i. The topical method, in which the teacher suggests 
a topic of the lesson or asks a question and requires 
the pupil to go on in his own way and tell what he can 
about the point under discussion. 

2. The lecture method, in which the teacher himself 
discusses the topic of the lesson, presenting the facts, 
offering explanations or making applications as he judges 
the case may require. 

3. The question-and-answer, or discussion, method, 
in which the teacher leads in a half-formal conversation, 
asking questions and receiving answers either to test 
the pupil's preparation or to develop the facts and 
meanings of the lesson. 

4. The story method, in which the teacher uses a 
story, told either in the words of the writer or in his 
own words, to convey the lesson. The story method 
differs from the lecture method in that the story re- 
counts some real or fancied situation or occurrence 
to convey the lesson, while the lecture depends more 
on explanation and analysis. 

It may sometimes happen that an entire recitation 
will employ but one of these methods, the whole time 
being given either to reciting upon topics, to a lecture 

201 



202 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

or discussion by the teacher, or to a series of questions 
and answers. More commonly, however, the three 
methods are best when combined to supplement each 
other or to give variety to the instruction. 

THE TOPICAL METHOD 

There is really no absolute line of demarkation be- 
tween the topical and the question-and-answer method. 
The chief difference lies in the fact that the question 
deals with some one specific fact or point, while the 
topic requires the pupil to decide on what facts or points 
should come into the discussion, and so make his own 
plan for the discussion. 

The plan of the topical method. — It is evident 
that the topical method of reciting will require more 
independence of thought than the question-and-answer 
method. To ask the child to "give the account of 
Noah's building of the Ark," or to "tell about Joseph 
being sold by his brothers" is to demand more of him 
than to answer a series of questions on these events. 
The topical method will, therefore, find its greatest 
usefulness in the higher grades rather than with the 
younger children. This does not mean, however, that 
children in the earlier grades are to be given no oppor- 
tunity to formulate their thought for themselves and 
to express their thought without the help of direct 
questions. 

This power, like all others, is developed through its 
use, and is not acquired at a certain age without prac- 
tice. Even young children may be encouraged to re- 
tell stories in their own words, or to tell what they 
think about any problem that interests them; and all 
such exercises are the best of preKminary training in 
the use of the topical method. 



METHODS IN THE RECITATION 203 

Narrative topics. — The easiest form of the topical 
method is that dealing with narration. Children are 
much more adept at telling what happened — recounting 
a series of events in a game, a trip, an incident, or an 
accident — than in giving a description of persons, places, 
or objects. The Bible narratives will therefore afford 
good starting places for topical recitations in the younger 
grades. Older pupils may be called upon to discuss 
problems of conduct, or to make applications of lessons 
to concrete conditions, or carry on any other form of 
analysis that calls for individual thought and ability 
in expression. 

Report topics. — A modified form of the topical 
method is sometimes called the report method, or the 
research method. In this use of the topical method 
some special and definite topic or problem is assigned 
a pupil to be prepared by special study, and reported 
upon before the class. This plan, at least above the 
elementary grades, has great possibilities if wisely used. 
The topics, if interesting, and if adapted to the children, 
will usually receive careful preparation. Especially is 
this true if well-prepared pupils are allowed in the 
recitation to make a brief report to an interested audi- 
ence of classmates. 

Care must be taken in the use of this method not 
to permit the time of the class to be taken with unin- 
teresting and poorly prepared reports by pupils, for 
this will kill the interest of the class, set a low standard 
of preparation and mastery, and render the method 
useless. When a topic of special study is assigned to 
a pupil, care must be taken to see that the exact ref- 
erences for study are known and that the necessary 
material is available. The devoted teacher will also 
try to find time and opportunity to help his pupil organ- 



204 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

ize the material of his report to insure its interest and 
value to the class. 

Avoiding a danger. — A danger to be avoided in the 
use of the topical method is that of accepting incom- 
plete and unenlightening discussions from pupils who 
are poorly prepared. To say to a child, "Tell what 
you can about David and Goliath," and then to pass 
on to something else after a poorly given account of 
the interesting story is to fail in the best use of the 
topical method. After the child has finished his recita- 
tion the teacher should then supplement with facts or 
suggestions, or ask questions to bring out further in- 
formation, or do whatever else is necessary to enrich 
and make more vivid the impression gained. This 
must all be done, however, without making an earnest 
child feel that his effort has been useless, or that what 
he has given was unimportant. 

THE LECTURE METHOD 

The lecture method, if followed continuously, is a 
poor way of teaching. Even in telling stories to the 
younger children, the skillful teacher leads the pupils 
to tell the stories back to her and the class. Mere 
listening gets to be dull work, and the teacher who does 
all the reciting himself must expect lack of interest 
and inattention. 

There can be no doubt that many teachers talk too 
much themselves compared with the part taken by 
their pupils. It -is much easier for the teacher to go 
over the lesson himself, bringing out its incidents, 
explaining its meanings, and applying its lessons, than 
to lead the class, by means of well-directed questions, 
to accomplish these things by their own answers and 
discussions. Yet it is a common experience, especially 



METHODS IN THE RECITATION 205 

with children, that we like best any program, recita- 
tion, or exercise, in which we ourselves have had an 
active part. And it is also from the lesson in which 
we have really participated that we carry away the 
most vivid and lasting impressions. 

The lecture method not for general use. — Every 
teacher should therefore consider, when making his 
lesson plan, just what his own part is to be in the pre- 
sentation of material. Some latitude must be allowed, 
of course, for circumstances which may arise in the 
recitation bringing up points which may need elabora- 
tion or explanation. But he should know in a general 
way what material he is to bring in, what applications 
he will emphasize, and what illustrations he will use. 
He should not trust to the inspiration of the moment, 
nor allow himself to be led off into a discussion that 
monopolizes all the time and deprives the class of 
participation. More than one church-school class has 
failed to hold the interest, if not the attendance, of its 
members because the teacher mistook his function and 
formed the habit of turning expositor or preacher 
before his class. The overtalkative teacher should 
learn to curb this tendency, or else give way to one 
who brings less of himself and more of his pupils to 
bear upon the lesson. 

This does not mean that the teacher shall never 
lecture or talk to his class. Indeed, the teacher who 
does not have a message now and then for his pupils 
is not qualified to guide their spiritual development. 
It means, rather, that lecturing must not become a 
habit, and that on the whole it should be used sparingly 
with all classes of children. It means also that all 
matter presented to the class by the teacher himself 
should be well prepared; that it should be carefully 



206 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

organized and planned, so that its meaning will be clear 
and its lesson plain, and so that time will not be wasted 
in its presentation. It will be a safe rule for the teacher 
to set for himself not to come before his class with a 
talk that is not as well prepared as he expects his minister 
to have his sermon. And why not! The recitation 
hour should mean at least as much to the church class 
as the sermon hour means to the congregation. 

THE QUESTION-AND-ANSWER METHOD 

Skill in questioning lies at the basis of most good 
teaching of children. Good questioning stimulates 
thought, brings out new meanings, and leads the mind 
to right conclusions. Poor questioning leaves the 
thought unawakened, fails to arouse interest and atten- 
tion, and results in poor mastery and faulty under- 
standing. To the uninitiated it appears easy to ask 
questions for others to answer. But when we become 
teachers and undertake to use the question as an instru- 
ment of instruction we find that it is much harder to 
ask questions than to answer them, for not only must 
the questioner know the subject and the answer to 
each question better than his pupils, but he must be 
able constantly to interpret the minds of his pupils 
in order to discover their understanding of the problem 
and to know what questions next to ask. 

Questions slavishly dependent on the text. — 
Not infrequently one finds a teacher who uses ques- 
tioning solely to test the knowledge of the pupils on the 
lesson text. Probably the worst form of this kind 
of questioning is that of following the printed ques- 
tions of the lesson quarterly, the pupils having their 
lesson sheets open before them and looking up the 
answer to each question as it is asked. 



METHODS IN THE RECITATION 207 

The following questions are taken from a widely 
used junior quarterly, the Bible text being Luke 10. 
25-37: "Who wanted to try Jesus? What did he ask? 
What did Jesus say? What reply was made? What 
questions did the lawyer ask? How did Jesus answer 
him? What is such a story called? What is the name 
of this parable? Where was the man going? Who 
met him? How did they treat him? What did they 
take from him? Where did they leave him?" No one 
of these questions appeals to thought or imagination. 
All are questions of sheer fact, with none of the deeper 
and more interesting meanings brought. All of them 
may be answered correctly, and the child be little the 
wiser religiously. Such a method of teaching cannot 
do other than deaden the child's interest in the Bible, 
create in him an aversion to the lesson hour of the 
church school, and fail of the whole purpose of religious 
education. The teacher must be able to use living ques- 
tions, and not be dependent on a dead list of faulty ques- 
tions embalmed in print. 

Questions arising spontaneously from the topic. 
— One who does not know his lesson well enough so 
that he can ask the necessary questions practically 
without reference even to the text, let alone referring 
to the printed questions, or asking questions in the 
words of the text, is not yet ready to teach the lesson. 
In order to successful teaching there must be a constant 
interchange of response between teacher and class at 
every moment throughout the recitation. This is im- 
possible if the teacher must stop to read the text of the 
lesson, or take her eyes and attention away from the 
class to look up the question which is to come next. 
All such breaks of thought are fatal to interest and 
attention on the part of the class. 



2o8 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

As suggested in an earlier chapter, the teacher should 
have prepared a list of pivotal questions as a part of 
her lesson plan. With these at hand there should be 
no necessity for reference to the printed lesson to find 
questions during the recitation period. Let the teacher 
who is accustomed to slavish dependence on the lesson 
text for his questions really master his lesson, and then 
declare his independence of tread-mill questioning; he 
will be surprised at the added satisfaction and efficiency 
that come to his teaching. 

The principle of unity. — Questions that really teach 
must follow some plan of unity or continuity. Each 
succeeding question must grow out of the preceding 
question and its answer, and all put together must 
lead in a definite direction toward a clear aim or goal 
which the teacher has in mind. One of the serious 
faults of the questions quoted above from the lesson 
quarterly is that they lack unity and purpose. Each 
question is separate from all the others. No question 
leads to the ones which follow, nor does the whole list 
point to any lesson or conclusion at the end. Such 
questioning can result only in isolated scraps of informa- 
tion. A series of questions lacking unity and purpose 
resembles a broom ending in many straws, instead of 
being like a bayonet ending in a point: and who would 
not prefer a bayonet to a broom as a weapon of offense! 

The principle of clearness. — The good questioner 
makes his questions clear and definite so that they can 
not be misunderstood. That this is not always ac- 
complished is proved by the fact that a child who is 
unable to answer a question when it is put in one form 
may answer it perfectly when it is asked in different 
phrasing. The teacher always needs to make certain 
that the question is fully comprehended, for it is evident 



METHODS IN THE RECITATION 209 

that an answer cannot exceed the understanding of the 
question in clearness. 

To be clear, a question must be free from obscure 
wording. One primary teacher, seeking to show how 
each animal is adapted to the life it must live, asked 
the class, "Why has a cat fur and a duck feathers?" 
Just what did she mean for the child to answer? Did 
she mean to inquire why a cat has fur instead of feathers, 
and a duck feathers instead of fur, or did she mean to 
ask why each has its own particular coating regardless 
of the other? Another teacher asked, "Why did Jesus's 
parents go up to Jerusalem when Jesus was twelve 
years old?" Did he mean to ask why they went when 
Jesus was just at this age, or did he mean to ask why 
they went at all, the age of Jesus being incidental? 
One can only guess at his meaning, hence the answer 
could at best be but a guess. 

Questions to be within the learner's grasp. — 
If questions are to be clear to the child they must deal 
with matter within his grasp. These questions are 
taken from an intermediate quarterly: "Why was the 
New Testament written? What was the purpose of 
the book of Revelation? Fit the epistle of Paul into 
the story of his life. What is meant by inspiration? 
What are the reasons for calling the Bible the most 
wonderful book in the world?" These questions are all 
clear enough so far as their wording is concerned, but 
they belong to the college or theological seminary age 
instead of to the intermediate age. While our ques- 
tions should make our pupils think, they must not go 
over their heads, for one does not commonly think on 
a question whose very meaning is beyond his grasp! 

Some questions lack definiteness because several cor- 
rect answers could be given to the question. Here are 



210 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

a few such: What did Paul claim concerning one of 
his epistles? What did Moses do when he came down 
from the mountain? What were the priests of the 
temple required to have? What happened when Jesus 
was crucified? What of John the Baptist? What about 
Ruth and Naomi? What did Judas become? No one 
of these questions asks any definite thing. To answer 
any of them the pupil must guess at the particular 
thing the teacher has in mind. Many answers may 
be given to each question which are as correct and 
which answer the question as well as the answer the 
teacher seeks from the pupil. Such questioning comes 
either from lack of clearness and definiteness in the 
teacher's thinking, with a consequent uncertainty as 
what he really does mean to ask, or else from a mental 
laziness which shrinks from the effort necessary to 
formulate the question definitely. 

Questions should stimulate thought. — Questions 
should be thought-provoking. Usually it is a mistake 
to ask questions that can be answered by a simple 
Yes or No, though there are occasions when this may 
be done. For example, children will not be required 
to think when asked such questions as, Was Moses 
leader of the Israelites? or Did Jesus want his disciples 
to keep children away from him? But they will require 
thought to answer Yes or No to such questions as, 
Should Esther have asked that Haman be hanged? 
or, Can God forgive us for a wrong act if we are not 
penitent? 

Leading questions, or questions that suggest the an- 
swer, do not encourage thought. To ask, Do you not 
think that God is pained when we do wrong? or What 
ought you to say in return when some one has done 
you a favor? is to leave the child himself too little to 



METHODS IN THE RECITATION 211 

do in answering. The alternative question, or the ques- 
tion that simply allows the choice between two sug- 
gested possibilities is also fruitless so far as demanding 
thought is concerned. In a question like, Was Paul 
a Gentile or was he a Jew? the bright child can usually 
tell from the teacher's inflection how to answer. In 
any case he will run an even chance of giving the right 
answer from sheer guessing. 

The order of questioning. — It is a mistake to ask 
questions in serial order, so that each child knows 
just when he is to be called upon. This method invites 
carelessness and inattention. There should be no set 
order, nor should a child who has just been called upon 
feel that he is now safe from further questioning. The 
element of uncertainty as to when the next question 
will come is a good incentive to alertness. The pupil 
who shows signs of mischief or inattention may well 
become the immediate mark for a question, and thereby 
be tided past the danger point. 

Usually the question should be addressed to the 
entire class, and then a pause of a few seconds ensue 
before the one who is to answer is designated. Care 
must be taken, however, not to wait too long between 
asking the question and calling the name of the one 
expected to answer, for attention and curiosity quickly 
fall away, and time and interest are lost and the recita- 
tion becomes slow. 

The reception of answers. — The teacher's reception 
of the child's answer is almost as important as the 
manner of asking the question. First of all, the teacher 
must be interested in the answer. This interest must 
be real, and must show in the manner. Not to look 
into the eyes of the child who is answering is to fail to 
pay the courtesy due one who is conversing with us; 



212 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

it is not only bad manners but worse pedagogy. The 
interested, sympathetic eye of the teacher has a won- 
derful power of encouragement and stimulus to the 
child, while an attitude of indifference on the part of 
the teacher is at once fatal to his enthusiasm. One of 
the besetting sins of many teachers is to repeat the 
pupils' answers after them. This habit probably has 
its rise in mental unreadiness on the part of the teacher, 
who repeats what the child has just said while getting 
ready to ask the next question. Besides being a great 
waste of time, the repeating of answers is discourteous, 
and is a source of distraction and annoyance to pupils. 
Finally, we may say that good questioning on the 
part of the teacher leads to questions on the part of 
the pupils. The relations between teacher and class 
always should be such that the children feel free to 
ask questions on any points of the lesson, and they 
should be encouraged to do so. The teacher must have 
the tact and skill, however, not to be led away from the 
topic by irrelevant questions nor to be required to 
waste time by discussing unimportant points . which 
may be brought in. It is to be feared that valuable 
time is sometimes lost in adult classes in discussing 
controversial questions that ought not to have been 
asked. 

THE STORY METHOD 

The use of the story method of instruction has been 
mentioned many times in the course of our discussion. 
It will still be worth while, however, to note a few of 
the principles upon which the successful telling of 
stories depends. 

First of all, a story is — just a story! It is not an 
argument, nor an explanation, not a description, nor 



METHODS IN THE RECITATION 213 

a lecture in disguise. A story is a narrative of a series 
of events, which may be either real or imaginary. These 
events are so related as to form a closely connected 
unity from beginning to end, and they are of such 
nature as to appeal to imagination, interest, and emo- 
tion more than to the intellect. The successful handling 
of the story depends on two chief factors: (1) the plan 
or arrangement of the story itself, and (2) skill in telling 
the story. 

The story itself. — The story must not be too long, 
or interest will weaken and attention will flag. It 
must have an interesting beginning, so that attention 
and anticipation are aroused from the very first sen- 
tence. "Once upon a time. . . ." "A long time ago 
when the fairies. . . ." "There once lived a king who 
. . . ." — these all contain a hint of mystery or of in- 
teresting possibilities certain to invite response from 
children. The commonplace beginning is illustrated in 
a story in a primary leaflet which starts, "There was 
once a mother, who loved her child as all mothers do." 
There is no invitation here to imagination or anticipa- 
tion, and the evident attempt to enforce a moral truth 
in the opening sentence detracts from its effectiveness. 

The major characters of the story should be intro- 
duced in the opening sentences. The story should pos- 
sess a close-knit unity, and not admit incidental or 
supplemental characters or events that play no direct 
part in the sequel. It must be so planned as to proceed 
to a climax, and this climax should be reached without 
unnecessary deviations and wanderings. We all know 
that type of story in which the main point is all but 
lost in a multiplicity of unnecessary details. On the 
other hand, points necessary to the climax must not 
be omitted. The climax may be the end of the story, 



214 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

or an ending may be provided following the climax. 
In either case the ending should leave the mind of the 
listener at rest as to the outcome. That is to say, 
there should remain no mystery or uncertainty or un- 
pleasant feeling of incompleteness. The ending of a 
story should be as carefully phrased as its beginning. 
Even if the story has a sad ending, which is usually 
not best in children's stories, it should have some ele- 
ment in it which makes such a conclusion inevitable, 
and so leaves the mind in a sense satisfied. 

Guiding principles. — The rules to guide in planning 
the story itself may, then, be stated as follows: 

i. Decide on the truth to be conveyed, and make the 
story lead up to this. 

2. Use great care to compel interest and anticipation 
through an effective beginning. 

3. Plan to have the body of the story reasonably 
brief, and to make the main truth stand out in a climax. 
Eliminate all complications or irrelevant matter that 
does not aid in leading up to the climax. Elaborate 
and stress all features that help in making the impres- 
sion to be attained in the climax. 

4. Make the ending such as to leave in the mind 
a feeling that the story was satisfactory and complete. 

Telling the story. — The effective story must be told. 
It cannot be read without losing something of spon- 
taneity and attractiveness. It cannot even be com- 
mitted to memory and repeated; for here also is lacking 
something of the living glow and appeal that come 
from having the words spring fresh and warm from the 
mind that is actually thinking and feeling them. Most 
story-tellers find that it pays to work out carefully and 
commit to memory the opening and closing sentences 
of a story; the phrasing is so important here that it 



METHODS IN THE RECITATION 215 

should not be left to chance. But the body of the 
story is better given extemporaneously even if the 
wording is not as perfect as it could be made by reading 
or reciting the matter. 

Before trying to tell a story before his class, the 
teacher should rehearse it several times. Nothing but 
practice will give the ease, certainty, and spontaneity 
necessary to good story-telling. Even professional story- 
tellers realize that they do not tell a new story well 
until they have told it a number of times. Perhaps 
this is in part because one never enjoys telling a story 
until he is sure he can tell it well, and so get a response 
from his listeners. And one never tells a story really 
well unless he himself enjoys both the story and its 
telling. One never brings the full effectiveness of a 
story to bear on his hearers unless he himself enters 
fully into its appreciation, and moves himself while 
stirring the emotions of those who listen. 

The right atmosphere required. — Second in impor- 
tance only to preparing himself for the telling of the 
story is the preparing of the class to listen. The right 
atmosphere of thought, attitude and feeling should be 
created for the story before it is begun. A primary 
teacher was about to begin a story whose purpose was 
to show how God cares for the birds by giving them 
feathers to keep them warm, wings for swift flying, and 
cozy nests for their homes, when suddenly a little bird 
flew in through the classroom window and was killed 
before the class by dashing against the wall. Of course 
the right atmosphere for her story was then impossible, 
and she wisely left it for another time. 

The approach to the story can be made by some 
question or suggestion relating to the pupils' own 
experience, by a sentence or two of explanation, or by 



216 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

an illustration dealing with matters familiar to the 
class. But whatever device is used, the introduction 
should prepare the minds of the class to receive the 
story by turning their thought in the direction which 
the story is to take. It is also important that any new 
terms or unfamiliar situations which are to be used 
in the story, and which might not be understood by 
the class, shall be cleared up before the story is begun. 

Arts and devices of the story-teller. — The skillful 
story-teller will soon learn to use certain arts and de- 
vices to make the telling more effective. One such 
device is the use of direct discourse; that is, instead of 
telling about the giants, the fairies, the animals, give 
them human speech and let them speak for themselves, 
like the bear in Little Red Riding Hood. Another 
effective device is that of repeating in the course of 
the story certain important words or phrases until 
from this repetition they stand out and become em- 
phasized. Some of the best story-tellers make effective 
use of pauses, thus creating a situation of curiosity and 
suspense in the minds of the listeners. The pause must 
be neither too long nor too short, nor can any tell just 
how long it ought to be except from the response of the 
children themselves, which the teacher must be able 
to sense accurately and unfailingly. Much may be 
added to the effect of stories by skillful use of the various 
arts of expression, such as facial expression, voice tone, 
quality, and inflection, and gesture. The use of mim- 
icry, imitation, and impersonation is also very effective 
if this ability comes naturally to the one who attempts 
to use it, but these would better be omitted than poorly 
done. 

Good stories sometimes lose much of their effective- 
ness by having the moral stated at the end, or by having 



METHODS IN THE RECITATION 217 

an attempt at moralizing too evident in the telling 
of the story. A story which has a lesson inherent in 
the story itself will teach its own moral if it is well 
told. If the truth to be conveyed is not clear to the 
child from the story, it will hardly appeal to him by 
having it tacked on at the end. 

We have, then, come to the end of our brief study 
of the teaching of religion. We have seen some of 
its principles and methods, and have discovered these 
at work in various illustrations and applications. It 
now remains to realize that these are all to be found 
in brief epitome in the work of the Great Teacher. 
For Jesus was first of all a teacher, rather than a preacher. 
And as a teacher he supplied the model which antici- 
pated all modern psychology and scientific pedagogy, 
and gave us in his concrete example and method a stand- 
ard which the most skillful among us never wholly 
attain. While we may love Jesus as a friend, come 
to him as a comforter and helper, seek to follow him 
as a guide, and worship him as a Saviour, it will be 
well for us now and then momentarily to place these 
relations in the background and study him just as a 
teacher. 

Jesus possessed an attractive, inspiring, compelling 
personality. People naturally came to him with their 
questions and problems. His quick sympathy, ready 
understanding, and unerring insight invited friendship, 
confidence, and devotion. He was ever sure of his 
"great objective," and whether he was teaching his 
disciples stupendous truths about the kingdom of God, 
or whether he was pointing the wayward woman the 
way to a reconstructed life, the welfare of the living 
soul before him was his controlling thought. Jesus 



218 HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

had a true sense of the value of a life, and no life was 
too humble or too unpromising for him to lavish upon 
it all the wealth of his interest and all the power of his 
sympathy and helpfulness. He did not feel that his 
time was poorly spent when he was teaching small 
groups, and many of the choicest gems of his teaching 
were given to a mere handful of earnest listeners seated 
at his feet. 

In all his teaching Jesus manifested a deep reverence 
for vital truth. He told his disciples, "The truth shall 
make you free." He was never afraid of truth, but 
accepted it reverently, even when it ran counter to 
accepted authority. Nor did Jesus ever lose time or 
opportunity in teaching trivial and unessential matters 
to his hearers; the knowledge he gave them was always 
of such fruitful nature that they could at once apply 
it to their living. Jesus's teaching carried over; it 
showed its effect in changed attitudes of life, in new 
purposes, compelling ideals, and great loyalties and 
devotions. Out of a band of commonplace fishermen 
and ordinary men he made a company of evangelists and 
reformers whose work and influence changed the course 
of civilization. Every person who responded to his 
instruction felt the glow of a new ambition and the 
desire to have a part in the great mission. Thus the 
teaching of Jesus entered into the actual life and con- 
duct of his pupils. The truths he taught did not lie 
dormant as so much mere attainment of knowledge. 
They took root and blossomed into action, into trans- 
formed lives, and into heroic deeds of kindly service. 
The constant keynote and demand of Jesus's teaching 
was shown forth in his, "He that heareth these sayings 
of mine and doeth them"; he was never satisfied with- 
out the doing. 



METHODS IN THE RECITATION 219 

Much is to be learned from the technique of Jesus's 
teaching, imperfect though the account is of his instruc- 
tion. He always met his hearers on the plane of their 
own lives. He would begin his instruction with some 
common and familiar experience, and lead by questions 
or illustrations to the truth he wished to present. In 
this way, without the use of technical words or long 
phrases, he was able to teach deep and significant 
truths even to relatively uninformed minds. Jesus 
appealed to the imagination through picturesque illus- 
trations and parables. He made his hearers think for 
the truth they reached, and so presented each truth 
that its application to some immediate problem or 
need could not be escaped. He was always interesting 
in his lessons, for they did not deal with unimportant 
matters nor with tiresome platitudes. He never failed 
to have definite aim or conclusion toward which his 
teaching was directed, and the words or questions he 
used in his instruction moved without deviation toward 
the accomplishment of this aim. He was too clear, 
too deeply in earnest, and too completely the master 
of what he was teaching ever to wander, or be uncer- 
tain or to waste time and opportunity. He felt too 
compelling a love for those he taught ever to fail at his 
task. 

Finally, Jesus was himself the embodiment of the 
truths and ideals he offered others. He lived the les- 
sons he desired his pupils to learn. He rendered con- 
crete in himself the religion he would have his followers 
adopt. His life was a lesson which all could learn and 
follow. 

1. Which type of recitation method do you most com- 
monly employ? Which do you like best? Do you com- 
bine the several methods occasionally in the same recita- 



22o HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 

tion? Do you plan which is best for each particular 
occasion ? 

2. To what extent do yon use the topical method? Do 
your pupils succeed in discussing the topics with fair com- 
pleteness? Do you always supplement with matter of 
your own, or expand the topics by asking questions when 
the discussion has been incomplete? 

3. Stenographic reports of various recitations have 
shown that teachers often themselves use from two to three 
or four times as many words in the lesson hour as all the 
pupils combined. Do you believe that for young pupils 
this is good teaching? Have you any accurate notion of 
the time you yourself take? Do you talk too much? 

4. Study your questioning in the recitation and de- 
termine as well as you can which of the principles of good 
questioning you are most successful in applying; which 
you are least successful in applying. 

5. To what extent do you use the story as a method of 
instruction ? How do you judge you would rank as a story- 
teller? To what extent have you studied the art of story- 
telling? Are you constantly improving? What difference 
have you noted in the interest of a class when a story is 
told and when it is read? 

FOR FURTHER READING 

Betts, The Recitation. 

Hamilton, The Recitation. 

Home, Story-Telling, Questioning and Studying. 

St. John, Stories and Story-Telling. 

Houghton, Telling Bible Stories. 



INDEX 



Adolescence, subject matter 
for, 117 

Aim, the 

the child determining, 30 
of religious instruction, 42 
religious habits as, 193 

Appreciation 

as an aim of instruction, 86 
cultivating religious, 194 

Approach, psychological mode 
of, 52 

Art 

in religious teaching, 72 
types of in curriculum, 125 

Assignment of lesson, 197 

Attitudes 

religious as aim, 45 

to be cultivated, 76 

toward the school, 77 

the child's spiritual, 84 

Bible, the 

the teacher's knowledge of, 23 
the child's knowledge of, 68 
continuing interest in, 82 
as a source of material, 111 
and reason, 167 



as the great objective, 30 
and his spiritual growth, 31 

Christian, the child, 34 

Church, the 

the child's knowledge of, 69 
participation in activities of, 

101 
loyalty to, 88 

Danger Points 

in instruction, 161 

how avoided, 162 

Deduction, in religion, 190 

Distractions 

freedom from in recitation, 

155 

avoiding unnecessary, 156 

Dramatic, the 
children and, 176 
use of in teaching, 176 

Drill, place of, 192 

Duty, as a virtue, 99 

Expression 

religious in the home, 106 
as a mode of learning, 44 
in social service, 101 



Conservation, religious, 33 

Child, the 

as a Christian, 34 
his concept of God, 59 
his concept of religion, 63 



Giving, training in, 104 

God 

the child's concept of, 59 
harm from wrong concepts 
of, 60 



the teacher's knowledge of, 25 made the daily counselor, 100 



221 



222 



HOW TO TEACH RELIGION 



Habit 

preventing the, of defeat, 81 
religious, as aim, 93 
the growth of, 94 

Heroes, appeal of to child, 89 

Home, religious expression in, 
106 

Ideals, 85 

Imagination 

use of in religion, 170 
how to appeal to, 172 

Induction, use of in religion, 187 

Instruction 
response as a test of, 53 
various tests of, 56, 107 

Interest 

as a test of attitude, 79 

in the Bible, 82 

how to appeal to, 151 

Jesus, an ideal teacher, 217 

Knowledge 

religious as an aim, 44 
of most worth, 58 
of the Bible, 67 
of the church, 69 

Laboratory, work in religion, 
102 

Lessons 
Uniform, the, 134 
Graded, the, 134 
in text book form, 134 
different types of, 183 

Life 

requirements of for religion, 43 



religious teaching and, 91 
a code for, 95 

Loti, Pierre, quoted, 61 

Loyalty, cultivation of, 88 

Material, for instruction 
means instead of end, 35 
adapting to child, 50 
chapter on, 109 
sources of, 11 1 
in story form, 118 
organization of, 126 

Measures 

of success, 38 

of child's progress, 39 
Memory, the 

laws of, 177 

training of, 179 

Method 

of the recitation, 201 

the topical, 202 

the lecture, 204 

the question-and-answer, 206 

the story, 212 

Music 

in worship, 72 

in the curriculum, 126 

Nature, as a source of ma- 
terial, 122 

Neglect, and stress of subject 
matter, 51 

Obedience, as a virtue, 97 

Objective, the 
chapter on, 30 
for the teacher, 30 
effect of on teaching, 37 



INDEX 



223 



Organization, of material 
chapter on, 129 
different types of, 130 

Personality 

building of, 16 

chart for, 18 
Pictures 

types of in use, 125 

appeal of to child, 174 

Plan, the lesson, 141 

Presentation, and response, 55 

Principles, foundation in teach- 
ing, 42 

Question, the, method, 206 
Questioning, principles of, 207 

Recitation, the, 201 

Religion 

the child's concept of, 63 
related to living, 64, 92 
and art, 72 

influence of music in, 72 
laboratory work in, 102 

Review, the, 196 

School, the church 
pupils' attitude toward, 77 
the spirit of, 78 

Score Card, for personality, 19 

Service 

social as expression, 101 

training in social, 105 



Singing, in worship, 104 
Story, the 

as lesson material, 118 

other than Bible, 120 

method of, 212 

principles of telling, 214 
Stress, and neglect of material 

5i 
Subject Matter 

as means to end, 35 

selecting right, 48 

chapter on, 109 

sources of, ill 

Teacher, the 
chapter on, 13 
types of, 14 
preparation of, 21 
as a student, 27 

Teaching 

technique of, 148 
measures of effective, 165 
types of, 183 

Text Books, of religion, 139 
Thinking 

required in religion, 165 

and Bible study, 167 

Uniform Lessons, 134, 135 

Wells, H. G., quoted, 60 
Worship, in church school, 104. 



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